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62 UMKC L. Rev. 171 (1993-1994)
Law and Social Change

handle is hein.journals/umkc62 and id is 181 raw text is: LAW AND SOCIAL CHANGE Martha Minow* I cannot help but note that today is tax day, and as many of us scramble to finish our taxes, I am reminded of the saying, there are two kinds of people in the world: those who finish what they start, and so forth. Actually, what I really believe is, there are two kinds of people in the world: the kind who think there are two kinds of people and the kind who don't. I also think there tend to be two kinds of people when it comes to the topic of law and social change-those who believe that law is an important instrument of social change and those who think not. Carolyn Heilburn once commented: Thinking about profound social change, conservatives always expect disaster, while revolutionaries confidently an- ticipate utopia. Both are wrong.' When it comes to the relations between law and social change I am not ready to announce who is wrong. There we find variations on the two basic positions. Some people think the law basically lags behind changes in society and gradually catches up. An example would be the change from divorce laws requiring demonstrations that one spouse was to blame for the break-up of the marriage to what is commonly called no-fault divorce, available if either party just wants out. Given how many thousands of people manufactured evidence under the blame system, the adoption of no-fault divorce could be viewed basically as an acknow- ledgment of actual practice.2 Some believe in contrast that law can occasionally prompt changes in society but only occasionally, and often unintentionally. For people with this view, Brown v. Board of Education3 stands as a remarkable and unusual moment of judicial leadership in advance of public opinions and practice.4 Others emphasize the unintended consequences of law reform efforts. For them, no-fault divorce is a striking example of a reform that unintentionally eliminated protection for women and has become associ- ated with dramatic drops in economic well-being for women and children * Professor of Law, Harvard University. Presented at the Law and Social Change Lectures at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, School of Law as a University of Kansas City Trustees visiting professor on April 14, 15, and 16, 1993. 1. THE BEACON BOOK OF QUOTATIONS BY WOMEN 299 (Rosalie Maggio ed., 1992) (quoting CAROLYN HEILBURN, TOWARD A RECOGNITION OF ANDROGYNY (1973)). 2. See LENORE WEITZMAN, THE DIVORCE REVOLUTION: THE UNEXPECTED SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN AMERICA (1985). 3. 347 U.S. 483 (1954). 4. A refined version of this view appears in ARYEH NEIER, ONLY JUDGMENT: THE LIMITS OF LITIGATION IN SOCIAL CHANGE (1982), which argues that courts are sometimes appropriate and sometimes less well-suited to pursue social change. His analysis contrasts the competence of courts in eight different areas of public policy.

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