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When the “Haves” Hold Court: Speculations on the Organizational Internalization of Law
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
Abstract
Marc Galanter's 1974 essay, “Why the ‘Haves’ Come Out Ahead,” portrayed large bureaucratic organizations as the archetypal repeat players in the legal system; Galanter's account, however, devoted relatively little attention to the distinctive legal capacities of organizations as organizations. This article extends Galanter's analysis by considering the ability of large bureaucratic organizations to “internalize” legal rules, structures, personnel, and activities. Specifically, we posit that the relationship between law and organizations has undergone four interrelated shifts in recent years: (1) the legalization of organizational governance, (2) the expansion of private dispute resolution, (3) the rise of in-house counsel, and (4) the reemergence of private policing. These processes interact with one another to transform the large bureaucratic organization from being merely a repeat player in the public legal system to being a full-fledged private legal system in its own right. Although “have not” groups may gain some short-run advantages from the introduction of citizenship norms into the workplace, the organizational annexation of law subtly skews the balance between democratic and bureaucratic tendencies in society as a whole, potentially adding to the power and control of dominant elites.
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- Articles
- Information
- Law & Society Review , Volume 33 , Issue 4: Do the “Haves” Still Come Out Ahead? , 1999 , pp. 941 - 991
- Copyright
- Copyright © 1999 by the Law and Society Association
Footnotes
Authorship of this paper was fully collaborative. The authors would like to express their appreciation to the Institute for Legal Studies at the University of Wisconsin for organizing the conference that inspired this essay. Thanks also go to Richard Lempert, Elizabeth Joh, Deborah Carr, and four anonymous Law & Society Review referees for their insightful commentary on earlier drafts and to Iona Mara-Drita and Dan Steward for their able research assistance.
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