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52 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 243 (1983-1984)
Law and Politics

handle is hein.journals/gwlr52 and id is 253 raw text is: Law and Politics David Kairys* I will begin by summarizing some of the basic ideas about law and society emphasized in The Politics of Law that have generally be- come known as critical theory.'1 I will then discuss two substantive examples that are important in themselves and demonstrate the di- rections in which this approach leads - freedom of speech and plant closings. I will conclude with a brief discussion of alternative forms of law practice. A. Critical Theory: Some Basic Themes The starting point is an assessment or a critique of what we all refer to as legal reasoning. Legal reasoning, of course, is what students learn in law school, and it purports to provide a basis for decision making in particular cases that is separate from politics, social the- ory, or particular values. Decisions are made on a legal basis rather than on the basis of social, political, moral, or religious perspectives. Legal reasoning, particularly as it is taught in law schools, has two branches: doctrinal analysis and policy analysis. Doctrinal analysis is supposedly the hard stuff of logically analyzing rules and princi- Copyright © 1984 by David Kairys. * B.S. 1965, Cornell University; LL.B. 1968, Columbia University; LLM. 1971, Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. David Kairys practices constitutional law in Philadelphia with Kairys & Rudovsky and is Philadelphia counsel for the National Emergency Civil Lib- erties Committee. This is an edited version of a speech delivered at the University of Oregon Law School on November 4,1983, as part of a speaking tour on THE PoLrTICS OF LAW, A PROGRESSIVE CRMTIQUE (D. Kairys ed. 1982). 1. See generally THE PoLrmcs OF Law, A PROGRESSVE CRmQUE (D. Kairys ed. 1982). Critical legal theory is relatively new, and there are important differences of opinion among people who consider themselves critical theorists. The version presented here is decidedly my own. January 1984 Vol. 52 No. 2

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