Litigation and Legal Mobilization

Abstract

Studies of legal mobilization have made important contributions to social science analysis of law over the last three decades. This article briefly reviews that tradition, emphasizing its basic underlying premises and insights as well as the sources of diversity and even contestation within the legacy. It then examines in greater detail several of these important lines of inquiry within the tradition. The article also discusses the historical context of scholarly interest in legal mobilization, the micropolitics of individual legal mobilization, and group struggle and social reform. Finally, it suggests some of the most fruitful paths of future scholarship regarding litigation and legal mobilization.

Política e direito na suprema corte norte-americana: debates teóricos e estudos de caso

“…Na mobilização do direito, por fim, a ênfase na dimensão individual e instrumental também se mantém, mas a partir de uma visão "de baixo para cima", ou seja, não apenas considerando os valores, interesses e ações de juízes e de governantes, mas também daqueles que mobilizam o direito, os "usuários" da justiça (MCCANN, 2008(MCCANN, , 2010. Alguns vão se preocupar em traçar uma tipologia dos litigantes para verificar as relações entre as suas capacidades (financeiras e jurídicas) e as possibilidades de instrumentalizar o direito e as cortes ao seu favor (GALANTER, 1974;EPP, 1996EPP, , 1998.…”

Law Enforcement as Legal Mobilization: Reforming the Pharmaceutical Industry Through Government Litigation

“…Scholars have generally examined legal mobilization by adopting either an instrumental perspective emphasizing how law directly influences society “by imposing external sanctions and inducements” or a constitutive perspective that draws attention to the role of law in “shaping internal meanings and creating new statuses” (Mather , 900; see also Sarat and Kearns ; McCann , ). These perspectives need not be mutually exclusive, however.…”

“…This is largely because mobilization studies tend to focus on nonstate actors and because government litigation campaigns have unfolded over long periods rather than being resolved in landmark court cases. By tracing a sustained reform‐oriented litigation campaign by public prosecutors, my article contributes to recent scholarship examining the role of activist government lawyers (Berenson ; NeJaime ) and responds to calls that greater attention be paid to complex litigation and mobilization by powerful actors (McCann , 535).…”

Academic Freedom in the Heartland: Rights Consciousness and the United States Supreme Court

“…A more common method for observing the presence of rights consciousness is the use of interviews with or surveys of participants in a particular act of legal mobilization (McCann, 2008;Marshall, 2003Marshall, , 2005Vanhala, 2009 There is an intuitive justification for a methodology that produces a thick description of the legal consciousness of individuals and groups engaged in legal mobilization. Studies of legal mobilization have focused on the individual, non-professional participants and have developed a constitutive theory of law, in which law consists of both formal and informal/cultural elements.…”