Toward a Radical Imagination of Law

Akbar, Amna A.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3061917

Cited by 15 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…(Rodriguez 2018, 479). Legal scholars who have written about the potential of an abolitionist perspective have noted its ability to provide a "cultural intervention" (Cullors 2018) and a counter-narrative to the liberal-progressive paradigm of law that upholds and legitimates state interventions through reforms that re-entrench carceral power (Akbar 2018;Rodriguez 2018). Abolitionists demand much more than surface-level reforms and instead are committed to reimagining the possibilities of law by aiming to shift power into impacted communities and "fundamentally transforming the relationship among state, market, and society" (Akbar 2018, 408).…”

Section: An Abolitionist Alternative To Reformmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Abolitionist justice is grounded in attention to experienced harm, seeks redress through accountability and repair, holds people accountable without punitiveness, and addresses material needs. But, perhaps even more importantly, it aims to address the roots of harm and violence through its goal of transforming structural conditions and power relations and of building power in impacted communities (Akbar 2018;McLeod 2019). This is just one example of how our use of language, what meanings we attach to the words we use, and what words we choose to ignore are some of the important ways that we can exercise our autonomy to reclaim our worldviews and resist these systems and structures on a daily basis.…”

Section: A Working Abolitionist Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Successful solutions seek means of achieving safety, conflict resolution, mediation, accountability, and justice without reliance on intervention from the state, from police, or from prisons, understanding that state intervention often runs counter to the goals of peace and safety (Brown and Schept 2017;Rodriguez 2018). They attend to people's lived realities-their immediate material needs-at the same time as they work toward long-term visions for social and structural change (Akbar 2018;Rodriguez 2018;McLeod 2019).…”

Section: Lessons For Reentry From Abolitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…institutions (Akbar 2018;Rodriguez 2018;McLeod 2019). The abolitionist organizations and programs discussed above also illuminate the importance of incorporating political education into the process of working with incarcerated or reentering people and communities.…”

Section: Lessons For Reentry From Abolitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unlike mainstream rehabilitation and reentry efforts, the abolitionist perspective is characterized by its challenge to the social, historical, political, and economic sources of criminal punishment system problems as well as by their racializing, oppressive, and exploitative impacts. As a number of legal scholars note, abolitionism also challenges traditional legal conceptions of justice, which are linked to liberal and progressive narratives of reform that ultimately serve to legitimate, strengthen, and expand carceral power and violence (Spade 2012;Akbar 2018;Rodriguez 2018;McLeod 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Abolition: A New Paradigm for Reform

Bell¹

2020

Law Soc. Inq.

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The catastrophic failure of the prison system in the United States has prompted a shift in criminal punishment system rhetoric and policy toward reform. Numerous programs and initiatives facilitate reentry for the hundreds of thousands of individuals coming out of prison every year, but these and other reforms remain problematic. They do little to improve the social and material conditions of those attempting to reintegrate. By failing to question the social, historical, political, and economic conditions of criminal system problems, they reproduce the oppressive social conditions that they are intended to address. This article diagnoses several major issues with conventional reform efforts in rehabilitation and reentry scholarship and praxis and argues that what is needed is not further attempts to improve these reforms but, rather, an approach that considers these problems through an abolitionist lens. An abolitionist frame, I suggest, is particularly useful in articulating suggestions for change. I apply an abolitionist analysis to an examination of reentry, illustrating how abolitionism helps to diagnose problematic reentry reforms and how an abolitionist approach to reentry can address these issues in a more effective, profound, and enduring way.

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Section: An Abolitionist Alternative To Reformmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Working Abolitionist Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lessons For Reentry From Abolitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lessons For Reentry From Abolitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Abolition: A New Paradigm for Reform

Bell¹

2020

Law Soc. Inq.

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Neoliberalism and Radical Rights: On the Work and Theory of Law and Organising

Fay

2022

Int J Semiot Law

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This article aims to contribute to scholarship regarding the critique of rights through the examination of the role of rights discourse in the furtherance of what is generally termed ‘community organising’—in particular, tenant organising—in the social and political context of neoliberalism. Conceptions of neoliberalism advanced in the work of David Harvey, Michel Foucault, Wendy Brown, and Bonnie Honig are synthesised to explicate the material and discursive role of law in the maintenance and furtherance of the neoliberal project. The article assesses the left-legal critique of rights presented primarily through the Critical Legal Studies Movement alongside the role of legal practice and legal discourse in countering neoliberalism. The article argues that rights claims concerning collective organisation, such as those commonly afforded to workers and trade unions, present a unique exception to the left-legal critique of rights in providing the means by which oppressive social relations may not only be remedies, but overcome. The works of Chantal Mouffe and of Roberto Unger are instructive in this regard and are placed in conversation with theories of community and labour organising. The article concludes by sketching the application of this conception of organising rights to the problem of housing and tenants’ rights under neoliberalism.

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Green reentry: criminal justice reform for a just energy transition

2021

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Efforts to reform the USA's criminal justice system and to slow the effects of a changing climate are often deliberated, but rarely connected. Current legislative action to reduce recidivism-via the First Step Act of 2018-and a landmark proposal to reduce carbon emissions-the Green New Deal-dominate headlines and debate. Community engagement is a critical factor in ensuring these programs address distributive inequities and promote human well-being. In this paper, the authors propose a synergistic potential of strategic action on these two societal issues. An analysis and synthesis of the literature shows that vocational correctional programs in renewable energy emerge as a means to both reduce recidivism and set a path to a low-carbon future. We offer detailson successful policies and programs supporting criminal justice reform and climate action and conclude by offering specific recommendations for legislation, hiring practices, and outreach.

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Toward a Radical Imagination of Law

Cited by 15 publications

References 12 publications

Abolition: A New Paradigm for Reform

Abolition: A New Paradigm for Reform

Neoliberalism and Radical Rights: On the Work and Theory of Law and Organising

Green reentry: criminal justice reform for a just energy transition

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