Critical Conversations: Reimagining Judicial Opinions with Critical Legal Theory

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

3:30 PM-5:00 PM

For decades, scholars have observed various ways that law reflects gendered, racist, classist, ableist, and heteronormative assumptions, arguing that the systematic exclusion of certain voices and experiences from legal decision-making maintains inequalities and hierarchies in society. In recent years, law professors around the country have participated in a set of scholarly projects to rewrite important judicial decisions, asking themselves how both outcome and reasoning might change if the judge had decided the case from an explicitly feminist or critical race perspective. The result is a collection of books focusing on wide-ranging areas of the law, including family, health, tax, employment, trusts and estates, criminal law, reproductive justice, and business. The creative reimagined opinions in these volumes help to illuminate biases embedded in the original decisions and highlight the importance of representation on the bench.

Join Drexel Kline Law faculty who have contributed to these collections for a panel discussion about their experiences working on the Feminist Judgments and Critical Race Judgments projects. Panelists and attendees will also explore the application of critical legal theory to sharpen our analysis of the law both inside and outside the classroom.

With Professors David S. Cohen, Rose Corrigan, Barry Furrow, Deborah Gordon, Wendy Greene, Liz Kukura, and Becka Rich.

Join us in-person in Room 140 or register via Zoom.