The Rise and Fall of Critical Legal Studies: Law, Politics, Culture

Author: James Gilchrist Stewart
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 9781399515320

Published In: January 2026
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Hardback Edition ISBN: 9781399515313

RM157.68

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Contents

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A wide-ranging intellectual history of the life, death, and afterlife of the Critical Legal Studies Movement An intellectual history of the Critical Legal Studies Movement

In-depth analysis on the spaces, people, and places that made CLS
Understanding the continuing power of CLS through its haunting of contemporary legal theories
Multi-lens analysis of key CLS texts

A wide-ranging intellectual history of the Critical Legal Studies Movement, drawing from personal accounts, academic works, and the media. The Rise and Fall of Critical Legal Studies unpacks Critical Legal Studies (CLS) to address what CLS was, how it came about, and what its legacy means for contemporary legal theories.

Taking a CLS approach to CLS, a range of legal, literary, filmic, and philosophical lenses are applied to key theorists and their works, with a specific focus on Duncan Kennedy. Through this analysis, a dominant type of CLS is untangled, and in true Crit form, repeatedly questioned from different perspectives to see what it achieved.

The Rise and Fall of Critical Legal Studies argues that CLS haunts the legal landscape, constricting emerging critiques of law. While the personal hierarchies of the Movement’s founders ensured CLS was also limited.

List of Figures

Preface – How do you solve a problem like Critical Legal Studies?

Chapter One – Reimagining Critical Legal Studies

Chapter Two – Untangling CLS

Chapter Three – Death on the Books

Chapter Four – Searching for Death

Chapter Five – Theoretical Ghosts and Spectres

Chapter Six – The Haunting of Critical Legal Studies

Chapter Seven – Navigating US-CLS

Chapter Eight – American Gods