Southwestern College Philosophy and Theology Discussion

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Description: CLS is Critical Legal Studies

One opponent of CLS said that the failure of CLS scholars is their “inability to make a positive case for CLS by showing that CLS itself posits something other than destruction of the current legal order…. Why read a tedious summary of a movement’s views when the movement will ultimately be judged as trendy and insubstantial for its lack of an alternative? Until CLS has a ‘coherent’ legal model of its own, it does no one any lasting good to attack the current model as ‘incoherent.’” One CLS scholar has claimed that CLS was killed by the question, “What would you put in its place?” On the other hand, another CLS scholar has argued that CLS wasn’t killed by a question; “it simply drifted out of fashion for want of a ‘new look.’”

Discussion Forum Prompt:

• Does CLS offer any alternative theory of law, judging, legal systems, or justice?
• Even if CLS does not offer an alternative, does this make its criticisms invalid? Or are there some criticisms that are valid even without an alternative? Explain.