A Critique of Adjudication [fin de siècle]
The book skillfully achieves its intended objectives and provides us with a remarkable and original approach to the problems of jurisprudence...It is impossible to summarise here the various aspects of this impressive work, much less comment on them. (Pavlos EleftheriadisModern Law Review [UK)Duncan Kennedy'sCritique of Adjudicationis a lively, accessible and, at times, deliciously irreverent book. It is also a very serious scholarly attempt to explore and theorize the adjudicative process in North America...[It] is well-structured and signposted throughout so that, although densely argued and full of (generally highly diverting) sub-themes, one can usually find one's way back to the main thread of the argument without much difficulty. (Joanne ConaghanJournal of Law and Society)Duncan Kennedy is one of the most prominent and influential legal theorists of the day. This is a major effort summarizing, clarifying, and elaborating his views on the core questions of jurisprudence. Kennedy's argument is about the political nature of legal, and especially judicial, decisionmaking. It follows directly and self-consciously in a centuries-old line of debate that has been especially intense in the United States throughout much of the twentieth century. The two principal books with which to compare Kennedy's in recent decades are H.L.A. Hart'sThe Concept of Lawand Ronald Dworkin'sLaw's Empire. Kennedy's book deserves to be as popular as they have been. (William H. Simon, Stanford Law School)