Fisuras en el pensamiento jurídico contemporáneo: el movimiento «Critical Legal Studies»

Abstract

In the late 70´s the critical legal studies movement was born. This was a highly heterogeneous school of thought, which is of interest for philosophy, the theory of law and legal sociology. This movement's theoretical background is drawn from North American legal realism, neo-Marxism and postmodernism, from which it has disclaimed any rational, objective, neutral, scientific and apolitical conception of law, the judicial function and, in general, legal discourses. The Critical Legal Studies, of leftist inclination, has directed its arguments against policy analysis, legal formalism, the Posnerian economic analysis of the law, Ronald Dworkin´s jurisprudence of principles or positivist sociology, but also against orthodox Marxism, liberal political philosophy and classic social theory. This article offers a general appreciation of this school.