Kennedy And Kennedy's The Critical Legal Studies Movement

The critical legal studies movement discusses law in play when it comes down to how the law works in the world and the issues with it.The cls movement states that law does not always protect the citizens in the best way. These ideas are analyzed by a myriad of law professors like Duncan Kennedy and Patricia Williams. Williams and Kennedy have areas of critique that overlap and areas where they differ. The main areas of similarities are the issues of rights protection for marginalized citizen. The area of contention between the two is how the issues of rights are created in law. For Kennedy, his area of critique is more around the legal institution while Williams had more criticism about the doctrine of laws. Both Kennedy and Williams have …show more content…
This is not something that springs up. Instead, the social hierarchy issue is a foundation issue starting from law school. According to Kennedy, law school creates a specific hierarchy relationship between law students and other students, law students and teachers, etc... Law students themselves are typically white men who are pushed into working relationships that they believe will mirror law firms. This creates tense relationships with law professors and students, professors and teaching assistants that will develop into junior associates and partners and secretaries and partners, all within a pecking order that has everyone fighting for themselves instead of for the client they are representing. Citizen’s rights are no longer the forefront but a byproduct of winning a case an associate hopes will get them to the top. Kennedy’s issue with the law is that the lawyers themselves are not representing rights and fairness but fighting for their own politics that stabilize the social hierarchy of good, better and …show more content…
Together, the two professors tackle the issues of critical legal studies. From Kennedy’s comments, we can see how the law has issues regarding the structure. Lawyers and judges are not representing best interests for citizens, instead choosing to represent their own best interests. From Williams’ comments, we can see how the law has issues in formation. The law is not written in a way that represents everyone in a society, only some of the population. The critical legal studies movement is important to understand and analyze so society can fix and update the legal system to better suit the needs of its citizen as well as protect them