Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 00:38:27 +0000
From: Mark Jones <Jones_M-AT-netcomuk.co.uk>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Marxist judges?


More legal schmoozing from Clarence Darrow.

Justin Schwartz wrote:

> The level of theoretical sophistication is low. The best sketch of
> a sophisticated theory I know is Milton Fisk's TheState and
> Justice, but while Milton's brilliant and a good friend and comrade of
> mine, he's not a lawyer

Yeah, well, here's a case of professional special pleading if ever there was
one. Clarence 'rush to judge' Darrow has a clear view on the respective merits
of lawyers and humans. America is over-lawyered, and there is no better
evidence than the existence on the margins of the justice system of a vast 
class of sub-fusc, sub-marxisant, sub-literate 'public interest' Clarence
Darrows.

>  I have toyed with the ide of writing a law journal article on Holmes
> and Marx: Class Approaches to the Law.

Believe me, the ideas you toy with generally need no further manipulation, 
they just express themselves and shrivel quietly away, Clarence.

> >Since I realize that you are a proponent of the idea that Marxism and
> > pragmatism
> > are compatible I wonder if you would be willing to draw a connection
> > between your espousal of a Marxian legal realism and your espousal of
> > a pragmatist Marxism?
>
> Absolutely.
>

Yes, Clarence will absolutely rise to any suggestion that he is worth
consulting, even without a fee.

> > Also I would like to know your views of Critical Legal theory which in my
> > limited understanding appears to be a kind of pomo version of legal
> > realism.
>
> A daed-on characterization, although I'd except the work of Mark Kelman,
> whose Introduction to Critical Legal Studies is brilliant and serious,
> Most CLS is pomo nonsense. I have attacked it in my Relativism, Reflective
> Equilibrium and Justice, 17 Legal Studies 126 (1997).

Clarence, I do not enjoy the thought of you any more, which
means I don't even get the residual satisfaction I normally do on this list.



     --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---