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BestsellerE-book
Author Schlag, Pierre.

Title Laying down the law : mysticism, fetishism, and the American legal mind / Pierre Schlag.

Publication Info. London : New York University Press, [1996]
©1996

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (x, 195 pages) : illustrations
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 167-188) and index.
Summary To hear judges or legal academics speak of "law," one would think that it is a humane, genteel, and noble calling. To experience law on the receiving end - as a litigant or a witness - is an altogether different experience, often evoking fear and dread. Whence the difference? Laying Down the Law traces this difference back to the self-deceptions of the legal mind. By exploring the ways in which legal professionals think, Schlag reveals the cognitive blockages, the false self-identifications, and the conventional sophistries through which the illusion of law is created.
For Schlag, the legalist form of thought extends far beyond the official precincts of law. The essays here are of interest not only to those who have undergone "legal education," but to philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, social theorists, and anyone else whose discipline is already prey to legalism. Schlag shows us how to move beyond the self-congratulatory rhetoric of the law so that we might think critically about its identity, and limitations. The book calls into question the dominant normative orientation that shapes so much academic thought not just in law, but in the humanities and social sciences. It challenges as well the dominant images of self, reason, and morality routinely assumed into existence by the legal community.
Contents This could be your culture -- Normative and nowhere to go -- Values -- The evaluation controversy -- Contradiction and denial -- Fish V. zapp: the case of the relatively autonomous self -- How to do things with the First Amendment -- Anti-intellectualism -- The legal form of being -- Laying down the law.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Law -- Study and teaching -- United States -- Philosophy.
Law -- Study and teaching.
United States.
Philosophy.
Jurisprudence -- Study and teaching -- United States.
Jurisprudence -- Study and teaching.
Jurisprudence.
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Subject Law.
Other Form: Print version: Schlag, Pierre. Laying down the law. London : New York University Press, ©1996 0814780539 (DLC) 96027348 (OCoLC)35128069
ISBN 0585002541 (electronic book)
9780585002545 (electronic book)
9780814780534 (alkaline paper)
0814780539 (alkaline paper)
0814780539