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Review Essay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Edward McGlynn Gaffney Jr.
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Type
Review Essays and Reviews
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , 2001 , pp. 689 - 700
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 2001

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References

1. For a complete bibliography of Rodes's publications, see Shaffer, Thomas L., The Christian Jurisprudence of Robert E. Rodes. Jr., 73 Notre Dame L. Rev. 737, 769–772 (1997)Google Scholar.

2. Id. at 760.

3. Book Note, Transcending Class: A Jurisprudence for Social Justice, 111 Harv. L. Rev. 2123, 2124, n. 6 (03 1998)Google Scholar.

4. Llewellyn, Karl, Jurisprudence: Realism in Theory and Practice 372 (U. Chi. Press 1962)Google Scholar.

5. See Rawls, John, A Theory of Justice 32–33 (Harv. U. Press 1971)Google Scholar.

6. Id. at 60, 201-211.

7. Id. at 11; see also at 118-119.

8. Id. at 136-142.

9. Id. at 143, 530-541.

10. Id. at 13, 147

11. “Assuming the framework of institutions required by equal liberty and fair equality of opportunity, the higher expectations of those better situated are just if and only if they work as part of a scheme which improves the expectations of the least advantaged members of society.” Id. at 75.

12. Djilas, Milovan, The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System (Frederick A. Praeger 1957)Google Scholar.

13. Shaffer, supra n. 1, at 741.

14. The literature generated by members of the loosely defined Conference on Critical Legal Studies is extensive. See Kennedy, Duncan & Klare, Karl E., A Bibliography of Critical Legal Studies, 94 Yale L. J. 461 (1984)Google Scholar; and Unger, Roberto Mangabeira, The Critical Legal Studies Movement (Harv. U. Press 1986)Google Scholar.

15. For a description of the movement as well as representative readings from its leading proponents, see Freeman, M.D.A., ed., Lloyd's Introduction to Jurisprudence 935–1024 (6th ed, Sweet & Maxwell)Google Scholar. For a powerful critique of three prominent members of the CLS movement, Duncan Kennedy, Joseph Singer, & Clare Dalton, see Brosnan, Donald F., Serious But Not Critical, 60 S. Cal. L. Rev. 262 (1987)Google Scholar.

16. Rodes, Robert E. Jr., A Guide to Critical Legal Studies, 39 J Legal Educ. 141 (1989)Google Scholar, reviewing Unger, The Critical Legal Studies Movement, supra n. 14, and Kelman, Mark, A Guide to Critical Legal Studies (Harv. U. 1987)Google Scholar.

17. See, e.g. Carrington, Paul D., Of Law and the River, 34 J. Legal Educ 222, 227 n. 21 (1984)Google Scholar, referring to Unger, Roberto, The Critical Legal Studies Movement, 96 Harv. L. Rev. 563 (01 1983)CrossRefGoogle Scholar as an example of nihilism. Rodes ultimately reached a similar conclusion about the broadly nihilistic tendency of some of CLS writing, (84) but he would not concur with Carrington's blanket statement that “[t]he nihilist … must profess that legal principle does not matter,” let alone with Carrington's more flamboyant conclusion that such a person “has an ethical duty to depart the law school, perhaps to seek a place elsewhere in the academy,” a duty that the dean thought correlative with the duty of a university “to constrain teaching that knowingly dispirits students or disables them from doing the work for which they are trained.” 34 J. Legal Educ. at 227. In this respect Rodes is much more like Mark Twain, who was frequently invoked by Carrington, but whose gentle sense of humor was missing at critical turns of Carrington's argument. Carrington's essay sparked considerable correspondence in the legal academy. Martin, Peter W., “Of Law and the River, “ and of Nihilism and Academic Freedom, 35 J. Legal Educ. 1 (1985)Google Scholar (letters from Robert W. Gordon, Paul Brest, Phillip E. Johnson, Louis D. Schwartz, William W. Van Alstyne, Guido Calabresi, & Owen M. Fiss).

18. Rodes, supra n. 16, at 141.

19. Id. at 143.

20. Id.

21. Id. at 145.

22. Id.

23. Much of what Rodes does in The Legal Enterprise (Kennikat Press 1976)Google Scholar is natural law jurisprudence. He does not repudiate that in Pilgrim Law, but clarifies that he sees pilgrim law as an important correlative to natural law and even a necessary corrective to its infirmities. (13)

24. The Williamsburg Charter: A Celebration and Reaffirmation of the Religious Liberty Clauses, 8 J. L. & Relig. 5, 21Google Scholar.

25. Currently the acting dean of the Harvard Divinity School, Fr. Hehir served for many years in the United States Catholic Conference as the executive director of the Division of International Justice and Peace within the Department of Social Development and World Peace. In this capacity he played a leading role in drafting a host of policy statements of his religious community, including the pastoral letters of the American Catholic Bishops, The Challenge of Peace (U.S. Catholic Conf. 1983)Google Scholar and Economic Justice for All: A Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy (U.S. Catholic Conf. 1986)Google Scholar.

26. Hehir, J. Bryan, Responsibilities and Temptations of Power: A Catholic View, 8 J. L. & Relig. 71, 77Google Scholar.

27. id. at 77-78.

28. id. at 77

29. Rodes cites James 1:10 (180) as urging us to rejoice in the “divine priority” of “the class of people we serve over the class to which we belong.” (xiv-xv) He cites 1 Cor 2:9: “eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into our hearts, what good things God has prepared for those who love him.” (11, 179) He alludes to 1 Cor 9:24: “We have it in Scripture that the race is not always to the swift.” (25) Other than Gustavo Gutiérrez (xi, 13, 98-99, 176-177) and Leonardo Boff (146148), Rodes cites no biblical theologians. Rodes does not strengthen his case for reliance upon liberation theology by ignoring valid critiques of this movement. See e.g. Gustafson, James, The Place of Scripture in Christian Ethics: A Methodological Study, 24 Interpretation 430 (1970)CrossRefGoogle Scholar (criticizing simplistic interpretations of Scripture by various liberation theologians).

30. See e.g. Coleman, John A., An American Strategic Theology (Paulist Press 1982)Google Scholar; Religion and Nationalism (Coleman, John A. & Tomka, Miklós, eds., Orbis Books 1995)Google Scholar; One Hundred Years of Catholic Social Thought: Celebration and Challenge (Coleman, John A., ed., Orbis 1991)Google Scholar; Rerum Novarum: A Hundred Years of Catholic Social Teaching (Coleman, John A. & Baum, Gregory, eds., SCM Press & Trinity Press Intl. 1991)Google Scholar.

31. See Catholicism and Liberalism: Contributions to American Public Philosophy (Douglass, R. Bruce & Hollenbach, David, eds., Cambridge U. Press 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hollenbach, David, The Role of the Churches in the American Search for Peace, in The American Search for Peace: Moral Reasoning, Religious Hope, and National Security (Weigel, George & Langan, John P., eds., Georgetown U. Press 1991)Google Scholar; Hollenbach, David, Justice, Peace, and Human Rights: American Catholic Social Ethics in a Pluralistic World (Crossroad 1988)Google Scholar; Hollenbach, David, Threats, Values, and Defense, in The Nuclear Dilemma and the Just War Tradition (O'Brien, William V. & Langan, John, eds., Lexington Books 1986)Google Scholar; Hollenbach, DavidNuclear Ethics: A Christian Moral Argument (Paulist Press 1983)Google Scholar; Hollenbach, David, Claims in Conflict: Retrieving and Renewing the Catholic Human Rights Tradition (Paulist Press 1979)Google Scholar; and Hollenbach, David, Modern Catholic Teachings Concerning Justice, and A Prophetic Church and the Catholic Sacramental Imagination, in The Faith That Does Justice: Examining the Christian Sources for Social Change (Haughey, John C., ed, Paulist Press 1977)Google Scholar.

32. See Perry, Michael J., Religion in Politics: Constitutional and Moral Perspectives (Oxford U. Press 1997)Google Scholar; Perry, Michael J., Love and Power: The Role of Religion and Morality in American Politics (Oxford U. Press 1991)Google Scholar; & Perry, Michael J., Morality, Politics, and Law (Oxford U. Press 1990)Google Scholar.

33. See Rodes, Robert E. Jr., Natural Law Theory Too Rigid: Moral Choices in Contemporary Society, 13 Natl Catholic Rptr. 7 (03 18, 1977)Google Scholar.

34. Shaffer, supra n. 1, at 754.