Cornel West, Meet Richard Posner: Towards a Critical-Neoclassical Synthesis

Abstract

Imagine Harvard professor Cornel West stuck in the same elevator with Judge Richard A. Posner. One is an African-American, a progressive champion of racial and economic equality, and a critical scholar of race, politics, and culture, while the other is of Jewish descent, a libertarian champion of free markets, and the intellectual godfather of 'law and economics'. Both scholars have published a prolific corpus of writings 2 and are at the forefront of two great intellectual movements: critical theory and law and economics. So what on Earth would these two leading public intellectuals say to each other? At the risk of sounding a bit irreverent, permit me to quote my favorite cartoon character: iay carumba!3 I mention Judge Posner and Professor West in particular to personify the deep intellectual divide between neoclassical economics (of which 'law and economics' is an offshoot) and critical theory. Indeed, this gulf is readily apparent in many of the papers published in this LatCrit X Symposium issue.5 Furthermore, this distrust is mutual. Just as most critical scholars share a profound antipathy towards orthodox economics, many neoclassical economists and mainstream lawyer-