An introduction to the critical legal studies movement from a Maltese perspective

Abstract

The object of study of this thesis is the Critical Legal Studies Movement, a set of radical and leftist thinkers on law in the United States who together have developed an identifiably coherent critical approach to legal analysis. This thesis purports to present a synthetic thematic review of the very diverse strands of thought that form this ensemble to the Maltese reader of law. This categorisation will follow no specific given pattern, but will be rationalised according to thematic criteria that are best illustrative to the Maltese reader, as understood by this author. In so doing, it thus seeks to transpose concepts and approaches to the critical analysis of law into the Maltese legal setting where possible. It also limits itself to elucidate and discuss on their own merits aspects that are either intrinsically of a local-contingent nature to the Critical Legal Studies Movement in America, or of abstract and universal validity. The process of study also seeks to appraise the separate functions and modes of critique even as they are presented. This entails an expression of value, and such is made in terms of the utility of each to the program of social transformation that informs the Movement, and against the contribution to widening the scope of critical legal analysis to the legal community in general. Since this exercise relates to often very disparate critiques and writings, the nature of this work is such that each chapter of study becomes self-contained, even as it sheds great light on the assumptions necessary to understand the others and read them in their proper context. This feature dictates the need for all reflections and conclusions to be addressed within each chapter specifically, rather than at the end of the thesis.