The Judge over Your Shoulder: Is Adversarial Legalism Exceptionally American?

Epp, Charles R.

doi:10.1086/380079

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 9 publications

(9 reference statements)

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“…Kagan has been criticized for mixing up too many different and, to some extent, ambiguous dimensions (e.g. Epp 2003). While I do not wish to participate in this debate, I have learnt from it that we should clarify what we mean by adversarial legalism.…”

Section: Adversarial Legalism In the Usmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Adversarial legalism” in the German system of industrial relations?

Rehder

2009

Regulation & Governance

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The US has a distinctive legal style, which Robert Kagan has called "adversarial legalism." It is marked by a pattern of political decisionmaking and conflict resolution in which the courtrooms and the law are systematically exploited as political arenas for making and implementing political settlements and policy outlines. In this article it is argued that a "German way" of adversarial legalism is about to emerge in the German industrial relations system. Economic liberalization, the fragmentation and decentralization of lawmaking authority in the political sphere, and the common-law-like nature of German labor law have contributed to the appearance of a judicialized pattern of governance. Nonetheless, Germany is not converging on the "American way of law" and major differences are expected to persist in the years to come.

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Section: Adversarial Legalism In the Usmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Adversarial legalism” in the German system of industrial relations?

Rehder

2009

Regulation & Governance

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“…Even if Kagan himself is not primarily concerned with detailed descriptions of how law operates in specific foreign countries, other scholars will certainly be tempted to pick holes in the argument by engaging in or drawing on more thoroughgoing comparative research in the societies he cites. Typically they will seek to show either that law in other societies does not in fact work that differently (e.g., Epp 2003), or that if it does, it is no "better," once we take into account the wider context or benefits of adversarial legalism in America (e.g., Sanders 2003), or the unexplicated downside of alternative systems elsewhere (e.g., Johnson 2003). In response, Kagan is free to choose to accept or try to refute such new evidence.…”

Section: Kagan Tells Us About the Values Underlying His Research In Hmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…19. Thus, in his review in this issue, Epp's (2003) pessimistic account of recent changes in English criminal justice relies extensively on left-leaning academics who intend their empirical research to serve as part of their political and due process criticisms of the English system. Their concern (typical of many insiders) is to improve things from within rather than provide a benchmark of where their system stands as compared with others.…”

Section: As This Suggests a Crucial Issue When Reading Accounts Of Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Compare? Criticizing "The American Way of Law"

Nelken¹

2003

Law and Social Inquiry

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Section: The Perils Of Instrumental Comparisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Compare? Criticizing "The American Way of Law"

Nelken¹

2003

Law & Social Inquiry

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The suggestion that something is rotten with law in America is not in itself novel; indeed it could be said that dissatisfaction with law is itself a constant of American legal culture. Popular distaste for lawyers is l o n g standing, and academic concern with over reliance on law would fill a large library. In the past, the problems raised have ranged from law's effects on "community" solidarity to the consequences of its costs and delays on American competitiveness in a globalized economy. Recent critiques range from neoliberal or libertarian pleas for a return to "common sense" (Howard 1996) to postmodernist attacks on law as an aspect of the irrationality of modernist rationality (Campos 2000). Bob Kagan's contribution to this genre is, nonetheless, in many respects original and provocative. These recent critics, like many others, see bureaucratic rule making and law as one seamless web. Kagan, on the other hand, wants to save both bureaucratic and professional forms of judicial rule making from exasperating legal challenge. What is more, he believes that by looking abroad to other modern societies he can show that this is really possible. There have of course been many other valuable attempts to study American law comparatively, especially as contrasted with Japan and, to a lesser extent, continental Europe.

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The Judge over Your Shoulder: Is Adversarial Legalism Exceptionally American?

Cited by 6 publications

References 9 publications

“Adversarial legalism” in the German system of industrial relations?

“Adversarial legalism” in the German system of industrial relations?

Beyond Compare? Criticizing "The American Way of Law"

Beyond Compare? Criticizing "The American Way of Law"

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