Rodrigo's Thirteenth Chronicle: Legal Formalism and Law's Discontents

Abstract

1. See Richard Delgado, Rodrigo's Chronicle, 101 YALE L.J. 1357 (1992) [hereinafter Rodrigo's First Chronicle] (introducing Rodrigo, the Professor's brilliant young friend and interlocutor). Rodrigo, the half brother of famed American civil rights lawyer and activist Geneva Crenshaw, see DERRICK BELL, AND WE ARE NOT SAVED: THE ELUSIVE QUEST FOR RACIAL JUSTICE (1987), was born the United States but moved to Italy when his father, an African American serviceman, was assigned to a U.S. outpost there. Rodrigo completed high school at the base school and attended an Italian university on government scholarships, graduating second his law school class. In Rodrigo's First Chronicle, supra, the Professor meets Rodrigo while he is on a return trip to the United States to investigate graduate law study. After discussing various LL.M. programs, they engage a spirited discussion of race, affirmative action, the decline of the West, and other topics. Despite their age difference, they became good friends, discussing law and economics (Rodrigo's Second Chronicle: The Economics and Politics of Race, 91 MICH. L. REV. 1183 (1993)); love (Rodrigo's Third Chronicle: Care, Competition, and the Redemptive Tragedy of Race, 81 CAL. L. REV. 387 (1993) [hereinafter Rodrigo's Third Chronicle]); legal rules (Rodrigo's Fourth Chronicle: Neutrality and Stasis Antidiscrimination Law, 45 STAN. L. REV. 1133 (1993) [hereinafter Rodrigo's Fourth Chronicle]); the critique of normativity (Rodrigo's Fifth Chronicle: Civitas, Civil Wrongs, and the Politics of Denial, 45 STAN. L. REV. 1581 (1993)); relations between men and women (Rodrigo's Sixth Chronicle: Intersections, Essences, and the Dilemma of Social Reform, 68 N.Y.U. L. REV. 639 (1993) [hereinafter Rodrigo's Sixth Chronicle]); enlightenment political theory (Rodrigo's Seventh Chronicle: Race, Democracy, and the State, 41 UCLA L. REV. 721 (1994)); black crime (Rodrigo's Eighth Chronicle: Black Crime, White Fears On the Social Construction of Threat, 80 VA. L. REV. 503 (1994) [hereinafter Rodrigo's Eighth Chronicle]); racial discrimination and the rule of law (Rodrigo's Ninth Chronicle: Race, Legal Instrumentalism, and the Rule of Law, 143 U. PA. L. REV. 379 (1994)); the role of merit (Rodrigo's Tenth Chronicle: Merit and Affirmative Action, 83 GEO. L.J. 1711 (1995) [hereinafter Rodrigo's Tenth Chronicle]); clinical practice (Rodrigo's Eleventh Chronicle: Empathy and False Empathy, 84 CAL. L. REV. 61 (1996) [hereinafter Rodrigo's Eleventh Chronicle]); and problems of desperately poor squatter settlements (Rodrigo's Twelfth Chronicle: The Problem of the Shanty, GEO. L.J. (forthcoming 1997)) over the course of the next two years. During this time, Rodrigo progressed from the status of law student to professor at a public law school in the Midwest. He and the Professor continued their relationship, seeing each other at meetings, conferences, and airports.