The life of the law : anthropological projects / Laura Nader
- Author
- Nader, Laura
- Published
- Berkeley : University of California Press, [2002]
- Copyright Date
- ©2002
- Physical Description
- 1 online resource (xiii, 262 pages)
Access Online
- Language Note
- English.
- Contents
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; Introduction; 1. Evolving an Ethnography of Law: A Personal Document; 2. Lawyers and Anthropologists; 3. Hegemonic Processes in Law: Colonial to Contemporary; 4. The Plaintiff: A User Theory; Epilogue; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX.
- Summary
- Laura Nader investigates an issue of vital importance for our time: the role of the law in the struggle for social and economic justice. In this book she gives an overview of the history of legal anthropology and at the same time urges anthropologists, lawyers, and activists to recognize the centrality of law in social change. Nader traces the evolution of the plaintiff's role in the United States in the second half of the twentieth century and argues that the atrophy of the plaintiff's power during this period represents a profound challenge to justice and democracy. Taking into account the vast changes wrought in both anthropology and the law by globalization, Nader speaks to the increasing dominance of large business corporations and the prominence of neoliberal ideology and practice today. In her discussion of these trends, she considers the rise of the alternative dispute resolution movement, which since the 1960s has been part of a major overhaul of the U.S. judicial system. Nader links the increasing popularity of this movement with the erosion of the plaintiff's power and suggests that mediation as an approach to conflict resolution is structured to favor powerful--often corporate --interests.
- Subject(s)
- ISBN
- 9780520936188 (ebook)
0520936183
058546846X (electronic bk.)
9780585468464 (electronic bk.)
1597347132
9781597347136
0520229886 (alk. paper)
9780520229884
0520231635 (alk. paper)
9780520231634 (alk. paper) - Digital File Characteristics
- data file
- Bibliography Note
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-250) and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 43158093