The Unbearable Lightness of Rights: On Sociolegal Inquiry in the Global Era

McCann, Michael W.

doi:10.1111/lasr.12075

Cited by 42 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…The dynamics identified herein travel to other contexts and issue areas. The findings prove particularly salient for international interventions that prioritize one particular form of harm over any other (Autesserre 2012;Carpenter 2007); prescribe one specific remedy to a social problem to the exclusion of other approaches (Berry 2015;Fraser 2009); or grants rights and legal access to one community while implicitly marginalizing others (Englund 2006;Goluboff 2007;McCann 2014). The prioritization of sexual violence by courts and legal aid programs in the Kivus, and the fact that many social and material benefits are only available to victims willing (and able) to pursue criminal cases, reflects an institutional marginalization of other forms of injustice or other expressions of need.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…How vulnerable individuals come to see their particular struggles as matters relevant to state law, and when they decide to address their grievances through formal legal channels, have been crucial questions for scholars and human rights activists (see, e.g., Massoud 2006;McCann 2006McCann , 2014Widner 2004). While recent work has shown that prosecuting violence is important in its own right-and necessary for ensuring the transition from cyclical instability and violence to stable and durable peace (Sikkink 2011;Sikkink and Walling 2007)-criminal justice is most immediately intended to provide accountability, recognition, and healing to victims (ABA 2014;M endez 1997;O'Connell 2005;UNDP 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gendering Justice in Humanitarian Spaces: Opportunity and (Dis)empowerment Through Gender-Based Legal Development Outreach in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Lake¹,

Muthaka²,

Walker³

2016

Law Soc Rev

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Why have women in eastern DR Congo increasingly turned to domestic courts in the aftermath of sexual violence, despite the fact that the state has consistently failed to provide basic goods and services to its citizens? Moreover, how do victims of violence interpret their first encounters with state law in an environment characterized by institutional fragility and humanitarian governance? This article analyzes the experiences and reflections of 50 self‐reported victims of sexual violence in eastern DR Congo. We find that human rights NGOs have served as critical mediators in persuading victims of violence to pursue legal remedy for sexual crimes. However, rather than being socialized to prioritize formal accountability mechanisms in precisely the ways that the architects of legal outreach programs intended, we find that victims of violence have turned to the law for a combination of material and ideational factors. Some appear to have internalized emerging norms of punitive criminal justice, while others have adopted the language of law instrumentally, in order to access crucial socio‐material benefits. We identify a paradox of opportunity and disempowerment, therefore, that characterizes our interviewees' experiences with the law.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendering Justice in Humanitarian Spaces: Opportunity and (Dis)empowerment Through Gender-Based Legal Development Outreach in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Lake¹,

Muthaka²,

Walker³

2016

Law Soc Rev

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“…Set against the tough-on-crime era, fair chance laws hold immense symbolic and political value. Even if the law does not lead to increases in housing accessibility, the recognition of rights may help galvanize further activism, pave the way for many beneficial, though subtle, changes, and roll back symbolic domination (McCann 1994). This study, however, does suggest that optimism over such laws should be tempered by the dynamics of risk discourse and private property.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 81%

Risk, Property Rights, and Antidiscrimination Law in Rental Housing: Toward a Property-in-Action Framework

Brydolf-Horwitz¹

2020

Law Soc. Inq.

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Landlords’ decisions significantly shape the housing outcomes of poor and stigmatized renters. Despite this important gatekeeping role, studies of antidiscrimination law have not thoroughly examined how private market actors respond to reform efforts or how private property rights potentially enable them to evade regulation. This study draws on ethnographic data gathered between late 2015 and early 2018 to examine how and why Seattle landlords opposed an ordinance regulating the use of criminal records in rental housing. The findings indicate that landlords’ opposition stems from their expectation that property protects owners’ ability to control their exposure to risk. Yet conceptions of property and risk perception alone cannot explain how landlords can evade regulation. Toward this end, I show how private property rights facilitate adaptation by which landlords can legally circumvent the intent of the law. The study highlights the value of a sociolegal framework of property in action, which incorporates cultural notions of ownership, legal rights, and the regulatory and market environments that shape owners’ discretion. I suggest that greater attention to risk discourse and property rights will deepen our understanding of the limits of antidiscrimination law and the ability of private market actors to adapt to, and resist, legal reform efforts.

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“…Looking back at the late 1970s, Michael McCann argued, 'The prevailing mode of inquiry in the early decades was gap studies […] Then, in the late 1970s, several waves of critical theory […] began to interrogate the promises of rights in more analytically ambitious ways'. 37 Lynn Mather similarly observed, 'By the 1980s, law and society critics of positivism raised serious challenges to the [positivist] paradigm and articulated postrealist, interpretive, and constitutive approaches to law'. 38 And in 1984, David Trubek published an article with the revealing title 'Where the Action is: Critical Legal Studies and Empiricism'.…”

Section: Developments In the Philosophy Of Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Making Sense of the Law and Society Movement

Blocq¹,

Woude²

2018

Erasmus Law Review

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This article aims to deepen scholarly understanding of the Law and Society Movement (L&S) and thereby strengthen debates about the relation between Empirical Legal Studies (ELS) and L&S. The article departs from the observation that ELS, understood as an initiative that emerged in American law schools in the early 2000s, has been quite successful in generating more attention to the empirical study of law and legal institutions in law schools, both in-and outside the US. In the early years of its existence, L&S -another important site for the empirical study of law and legal institutionsalso had its center of gravity inside the law schools. But over time, it shifted towards the social sciences. This article discusses how that happened, and more in general explains how L&S became ever more diverse in terms of substance, theory and methods. 134

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The Unbearable Lightness of Rights: On Sociolegal Inquiry in the Global Era

Cited by 42 publications

References 68 publications

Gendering Justice in Humanitarian Spaces: Opportunity and (Dis)empowerment Through Gender-Based Legal Development Outreach in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Gendering Justice in Humanitarian Spaces: Opportunity and (Dis)empowerment Through Gender-Based Legal Development Outreach in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Risk, Property Rights, and Antidiscrimination Law in Rental Housing: Toward a Property-in-Action Framework

Making Sense of the Law and Society Movement

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