Socio-Legal Approach to Constitutional Law : Cases and Controversies

Exploring constitutional law as both a mirror and catalyst for social change, this revamped text adopts a culturally responsive lens to reveal the lasting impact of historical and modern inequities. It challenges readers to dissect controversies spanning racial injustice to climate policy.

The first edition of this textbook presented students with a variety of humanities-based readings in an effort to provide them with a culturally responsive approach to analyzing legal cases. The second edition of A Socio-Legal Approach to Constitutional Law: Cases and Controversies builds upon the previous edition and provides students with a clearer thematic approach and an even deeper commitment to culturally responsive analysis.

Unit I presents constitutional law as a way of framing historical social change. The dual nature of constitutionalism is examined through competing conceptions of sovereignty. Unit II digs deeper into how the social production of difference is resisted by those experiencing injustice. In Unit III, readers are provided with the opportunity to apply the newly learned socio-legal framework to cases organized by theme, including racial injustice, gender and reproductive rights, privacy interests, political action committees and corporate influence, immigration and education rights, and climate change policy. The final unit returns to the framing of the constitution as a contradictory document that both reflects and produces social inequality.

Developed to help students examine the most pressing civic challenges and controversies of today, A Socio-Legal Approach to Constitutional Law is ideal for courses in constitutional law, civic engagement, law and society, governmental institutions, and democratic theory.