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The Fundamental Contradiction Redux? Liberty, Coercion, and American Legal Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Paul Baumgardner
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Abstract

In Liberty and Coercion: The Paradox of American Government from the Founding to the Present, Gary Gerstle offers an ambitious account of American legal development from our nation's founding up to the present day. In many ways, Gerstle's account is in keeping with the long scholarly tradition of linking legal liberalism with changes in American law and politics. However, Liberty and Coercion also calls to mind critical legal scholarship, most notably Duncan Kennedy's “The Structure of Blackstone's Commentaries” and the idea of the fundamental contradiction. After reconstructing Kennedy's central claims, I highlight how they actually undermine Liberty and Coercion and jeopardize the larger legal liberal tradition.

Type
Review Essay
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , Summer 2017 , pp. 924 - 942
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2017 

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