Open AccessBook Review: Michael Giudice, Social Construction of Law: Potential and Limits
Author(s) -
Erin Buckley
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
law in context
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1839-4183
pISSN - 0811-5796
DOI - 10.26826/law-in-context.v37i2.153
Subject(s) - ideology , argument (complex analysis) , statement (logic) , sort , project commissioning , law , key (lock) , publishing , limit (mathematics) , epistemology , sociology , law and economics , philosophy , political science , politics , computer science , mathematics , computer security , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , chemistry , information retrieval
That law is socially constructed is so ubiquitous a statement in law and the humanities as to render itself dangerously close to ‘common sense’. The subheading ‘Potential and Limits’ is the key to Giudice’s original argument in which he suggests that law is both socially constructed; yet retains a ‘natural’ core. When teaching critical theory, I encourage students to examine anything they understand as ‘common sense’ as a potential blind spot for bias and assumptions deeply ingrained in ideology. As such, the attempt to examine exactly such a potential blind spot is exactly the sort of problem legal philosophy should seek to address.