Imposition
37 Pages Posted: 21 Mar 2014
Date Written: 1994
Abstract
Courts have been expressing exasperation with increasing frequency, particularly in cases brought by prisoners, minorities, and other unpopular groups. This article posits that the judiciary, like society at large, deploys the trope of imposition at key moments in the history of a reform movement to invalidate it and place it on the defensive. At first, society may tolerate or even support the reformers. At some point, however, reaction sets in and we declare that we have done enough for them. Now they are unreasonable, the aggressors, asking for things they do not deserve. They are imposing on us and our good nature. We (including the judiciary) reject their pleas indignantly, since they now tax our good natures.
Keywords: law reform, judicial review, law and politics, legal realism, judges and judging
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