Once considered a stepchild of social theory legal criticism has received a great deal of
attention in recent years perpetuating what has always been an ambivalent relationship. On the
one hand law is praised for being a cultural achievement on the other it is criticised for
being an instrument of state oppression. Legal criticism's strategies to deal with this
ambivalence differ greatly: while some theoreticians seek to transcend the institution of law
altogether others advocate a transformation of the form of law or try to employ
counter-hegemonic strategies to change the content of law deconstruct its basis or invent
rights. By presenting a variety of heterogeneous approaches to legal criticism this volume
points out transitions and exhibits irreconcilable differences of these approaches. Without
denying the diversity of different forms of critique they are related to one another with the
aim of broadening the debates which all too often are conducted only within the boundaries of
the separate theoretical currents.
