Neil Gotanda and the Critical Legal Studies Movement

Abstract

In this essay, the author tells of the historical development of Critical Legal Studies during the 1980s. It is from this background that Neil Gotanda and others developed the base for the Asian American legal studies movement. Although there is now a deeper understanding of how discrimination works within different cultural communities because of the concepts of 'foreigness" and "race" brought out by Gotanda and other Asian American scholars, it is still too early to tell what the results of the Asian American legal studies movement will be. While questions remain, he concludes that Asian American scholars like Gotanda have advanced a "unique and highly significant analysis" of the race and foreigness in American law.