The Law: “Something He and His People Naturally Would Be Drawn To”: The Reagan Administration and the Law‐and‐Economics Movement

Abstract

In order to better understand the growth of modern conservatism within the United States, scholars of American political development increasingly have set their sights on the 1980s and the Reagan Revolution. But key questions still remain about the part played by President Ronald Reagan's administration during this period of legal transformation. Additionally, political scientists have given short shrift to the legal ideas and idea makers that grew in prominence during the Reagan Revolution. This article connects these two loose strands through an exploration of the relationship fostered between the Reagan administration and the lawand-economics movement. Archival records and interview materials reveal the mutually beneficial nature of this relationship, which shaped both the legal academy and the federal government.

Ronald Reagan, the Modern Right, and…the Rise of the Fem-Crits

“…In spite of the growing scholarly interest surrounding the Reagan Revolution and the legal theoretical developments of the 1980s (Teles 2008;Hollis-Brusky 2015;Bennett 2017;Decker 2016;Baumgardner 2019b;Kersch 2014;Ash et al 2019), the Fem-Crits have not garnered meaningful attention. So who exactly were the Fem-Crits?…”

Trashing the Tables: The Critical Legal Studies Symposium of the Stanford Law Review, Then and Now

“…The legal consciousness of a society is the way in which that society integrates understanding of legal order with other ideas which give meaning to its social world. Taken most broadly, legal consciousness includes all the ideas about the nature, function, and operation of law held by anyone in society at a given time"(Trubek 1984, p. 592).4 For more information about these concerns over conservatization, see(Kelman 1983;Horwitz 1980;Schlegel 1997;Baumgardner 2019Baumgardner , 2021.…”