Critical Legal Studies

Abstract

Critical Legal Studies (CLS) was a left‐leaning academic movement in American legal scholarship active between the late 1970s and early 1990s. It carried forward influences from both Legal Realism and New Left political radicalism. Intellectually promiscuous, CLS also borrowed from continental philosophy, social theory, Marxism, and critical theory. Although CLS dissolved into rival factions organized around feminism and critical race theory certain CLS themes continue into contemporary critical legal thinking.