Gary Peller
Encyclopedia
Gary Peller is Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center
and a prominent member of the critical legal studies
and critical race theory
movements.
from Emory University
in 1977 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School where he served as a member of the Harvard Law Review
. Peller then clerked for the Honorable Morris Lasker. He is currently a member of the Maryland state bar and of counsel
to the law firm Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP, on the side of his academic career.
. Peller is among the irrationalist branch of the CLS movement, arguing that there is no neutral or objective rationality but rather what is understood as knowledge is a socially contingent result of prevailing power dynamics. He is also known for his debate with Mark Tushnet
where he defended the Critical Race Theorist's use of personal narrative rather than conventional arguments in their articles.
Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center is the law school of Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C.. Established in 1870, the Law Center offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees in law...
and a prominent member of the critical legal studies
Critical legal studies
Critical legal studies is a movement in legal thought that applied methods similar to those of critical theory to law. The abbreviations "CLS" and "Crit" are sometimes used to refer to the movement and its adherents....
and critical race theory
Critical race theory
Critical Race Theory is an academic discipline focused upon the intersection of race, law and power.Although no set of canonical doctrines or methodologies defines CRT, the movement is loosely unified by two common areas of inquiry...
movements.
Education and early career
Peller received an A.B.Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
in 1977 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School where he served as a member of the Harvard Law Review
Harvard Law Review
The Harvard Law Review is a journal of legal scholarship published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School.-Overview:According to the 2008 Journal Citation Reports, the Review is the most cited law review and has the second-highest impact factor in the category "law" after the...
. Peller then clerked for the Honorable Morris Lasker. He is currently a member of the Maryland state bar and of counsel
Of counsel
Of counsel is often the title of an attorney who is employed by a law firm or an organization, but is not an associate or a partner. Some firms use titles like "counsel," "special counsel," and "senior counsel" for the same concept...
to the law firm Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP, on the side of his academic career.
Academic work and influence
Peller was one of the central figures at the Conference on Critical Legal Studies. With Kimberle Crenshaw, Peller co-authored a widely cited article, The Contradictions of Mainstream Constitutional Theory, published in the UCLA Law Review, and co-edited one of the standard texts in Critical Race TheoryCritical race theory
Critical Race Theory is an academic discipline focused upon the intersection of race, law and power.Although no set of canonical doctrines or methodologies defines CRT, the movement is loosely unified by two common areas of inquiry...
. Peller is among the irrationalist branch of the CLS movement, arguing that there is no neutral or objective rationality but rather what is understood as knowledge is a socially contingent result of prevailing power dynamics. He is also known for his debate with Mark Tushnet
Mark Tushnet
Mark Victor Tushnet is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. A prominent scholar of constitutional law and legal history, he is the author of many books and articles.-Career:...
where he defended the Critical Race Theorist's use of personal narrative rather than conventional arguments in their articles.
Selected Bibliography
- Gary Peller & Mark V. Tushnet, State Action and a New Birth of Freedom, 92 Geo. L.J. 779-817 (2004).
- Gary Peller, A Subversive Strand of the Warren Court, 59 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1141-1165 (2002).
- Kimberle Crenshaw, Neil Gotanada, Gary Peller, Kendall Thomas, Critical Race Theory, The Key Writings that Formed the Movement. 1995, The New Press
- “The Ideology of the Substantive Criminal Law,” Summer Faculty Colloquia, Georgetown University Law Center,” July, 2001.
- Kimberle Crenshaw & Gary Peller, The Contradictions of Mainstream Constitutional Theory,” 45 U.C.L.A. L. Rev. 1683 (1998).
- “Public Imperialism and Private Resistance: Progressive Possibilities of the New Private Law,” 73 Denver L. Rev. 1001 (1996).
- “Cultural Imperialism and Race,” in A. Sarat, ed., Forty Years After Brown, Oxford University Press (1996).
- “Criminal Law, Race, and the Idea of Bias: Transcending the Critical Tools of the Sixties,” 67 Tulane L. Rev. 2231 (1993).
- “Proof, Myth and Law: The Social Meaning of the Rodney King Verdict,” 70 Denver L. Rev. 548 (1993) (co-authored with Kimberle Crenshaw).
- “The Discourse of Constitutional Degradation,” 81 Georgetown L. J. 313 (1992).
- “Notes Toward a Postmodern Nationalism,” 72 Illin. L. Rev. 664 (1992).
- “The New Public Law Movement: Moderation as a Postmodern Cultural Form,” 89 Michigan L. Rev. 231 (1991)
- “Race Consciousness,” 1990 Duke L.J. 758. Reprinted in After Identity, D. Danielson & K. Engle, eds., Routledge (1994) and in Critical Race Theory: A Reader (K. Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller, & K. Thomas, eds. New Press (1996).
- “Reason and the Mob: The Politics of Representation,” 2 Tikkun 28 (July/Aug. 1987). Reprinted in A Tikkun Anthology (M. Lerner, ed. 1991).
- “The Metaphysics of American Law,” 73 Calif. L. Rev. 1151 (1985), reprinted in Critical Legal Studies, J. Boyle ed. (1991).
See also
- Critical legal studiesCritical legal studiesCritical legal studies is a movement in legal thought that applied methods similar to those of critical theory to law. The abbreviations "CLS" and "Crit" are sometimes used to refer to the movement and its adherents....
- Indeterminacy debate in legal theoryIndeterminacy debate in legal theoryThe indeterminacy debate in legal theory can be summed up as follows: Can the law constrain the results reached by adjudicators in legal disputes? Some members of the critical legal studies movement — primarily legal academics in the United States — argued that the answer to this question is "no."...
- List of deconstructionists