Racism and the Law : The Legacy and Lessons of Plessy

Gerald Postema

ISBN 10: 0792346653 / ISBN 13: 9780792346654

Published by Springer Netherlands, Springer Netherlands, 1997

About this Item

Druck auf Anfrage Neuware - Printed after ordering - Plessy v Ferguson (1897) established racial segregation in American constitutional law for over fifty years and its moral and political legacy lives on, despite attempts in the United States to counter its devastating effects during the last half century. Ironically, in the current debate over affirmative action, Justice Harlan's eloquent dissent has been used to justify attacks on government affirmative action programs. In this book, five distinguished philosophers and constitutional theorists, working from very different theoretical positions, take a fresh critical look at the moral and political principles underlying this historic decision and Harlan's dissent. They also explore the nature and extent of law's complicity in perpetuating Plessy's racialist aims. Emerging from their varied but complementary analyses is a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the social injustice of racial segregation in its historic and contemporary forms and of resources of the law to reverse it.

Seller Inventory # 9780792346654

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Racism and the Law : The Legacy and Lessons of Plessy
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands, Springer Netherlands
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0792346653
• ISBN 13: 9780792346654
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 241W x 160H x 12D millimeters 241 millimeters width by 160 millimeters height by 12 millimeters depth
• Weight: 354 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Plessy v Ferguson (1897) established racial segregation in American constitutional law for over fifty years and its moral and political legacy lives on, despite attempts in the United States to counter its devastating effects during the last half century. Ironically, in the current debate over affirmative action, Justice Harlan's eloquent dissent has been used to justify attacks on government affirmative action programs. In this book, five distinguished philosophers and constitutional theorists, working from very different theoretical positions, take a fresh critical look at the moral and political principles underlying this historic decision and Harlan's dissent. They also explore the nature and extent of law's complicity in perpetuating Plessy's racialist aims. Emerging from their varied but complementary analyses is a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the social injustice of racial segregation in its historic and contemporary forms and of resources of the law to reverse it.