Critical legal theory

Critical legal studies (CLS) is a both a theory and a social network of progressive legal scholars that first emerged as a movement in the United States during the 1970s. Although the philosophy of Critical Legal Thinking emerged as a reaction to conservative Anglo-American common law (which is more reliant on precedent than codification ) its roots and its reach are much deeper and international in scope

Despite wide variation in the opinions of critical legal scholars around the world there is general consensus regarding the importance of modern human rights which may be united by a few key activities.

Critical legal studies seeks to reform judicial practice to expose and eliminate obscure jargon private interests and class discrimination that CLS scholars argued are endemic in western legal cultures.

Considered "the first movement in legal theory and legal scholarship in the United States to have espoused a committed Left political stance and perspective", critical legal studies was committed to shaping society based on a vision of human personality devoid of the hidden interests and class domination that CLS scholars argued are at the root of liberal legal institutions in the West. According to CLS scholars Duncan Kennedy and Karl Klare, critical legal studies was "concerned with the relationship of legal scholarship and practice to the struggle to create a more humane, egalitarian, and democratic society." During its period of peak influence, the critical legal studies movement caused considerable controversy within the legal academy. Members such as Roberto Mangabeira Unger have sought to rebuild these institutions as an expression of human coexistence and not just a provisional truce in a brutal struggle and were seen as the most powerful voices and the only way forward for the movement. Unger and other members of the movement continue to try to develop it in new directions, e.g., to make legal analysis the basis of developing institutional alternatives.

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