Duncan Kennedy

This episode, we swap out one legend of legal theory for another. Goodbye David, hello to our guest – the one and only Duncan Kennedy! As part of a course he’s teaching at Yale Law School, Foundations of American Legal Thought, Sam interviewed Professor Kennedy in front of a live audience on March 8, 2023. Professor Kennedy, the Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence, Emeritus, at Harvard Law School, is a legal and social theorist and one of the founding members of the Critical Legal Studies movement.

We learn about Professor Kennedy’s experience as a student at Yale Law School (three cheers for insider baseball) and his experience with so-called generational revolt. Next, we turn to his academic accomplishments: Professor Kennedy discusses some of his early articles, which were instrumental in the origins of the so-called Critical Legal Studies movement. Finally, we conclude the conversation with a discussion of the Law and Political Economy movement. Many of our listeners might be familiar with LPE, and might even have wondered what the CLS vanguard have to say about it. Give this pod a listen to find out.

This podcast is generously supported by Themis Bar Review.

Referenced Readings

• The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860 by Morton Horwitz

• “Legal Formality” by Duncan Kennedy

• The Rise and Fall of Classical Legal Thought by Duncan Kennedy

• “Form and Substance in Private Law Adjudication” by Duncan Kennedy

• Social Thought in America: The Revolt Against Formalism by Morton White

• “The Structure of Blackstone’s Commentaries” by Duncan Kennedy

• “⁠In Defense of Rent Control and Rent Caps⁠” by Duncan Kennedy