The Courts in American Public Culture
Name
Silbey-2014-The Courts in Americ.pdf
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160.76 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Silbey, Susan S.
Date Issued
July 2014
Journal
Daedalus
Publisher
MIT Press
Citation
Silbey, Susan S. “The Courts in American Public Culture.” Daedalus 143, no. 3 (July 2014): 140–156. © 2014 The MIT Press.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
In American public imagination, courts are powerful but also impotent. They are guardians of citizens' rights but also agents of corporate wealth; simultaneously the least dangerous branch and the ultimate arbiters of fairness and justice. After recounting the social science literature on the mixed reception of courts in American public culture, this essay explains how the contradictory embrace of courts and law by Americans is not a weakness or flaw, nor a mark of confusion or naïveté. Rather, Americans' paradoxical interpretations of courts and judges sustain rather than undermine our legal institutions. These opposing accounts are a source of institutional durability and power because they combine the historical and widespread aspirations for the rule of law with a pragmatic recognition of the limits of institutional practice; these sundry accounts balance an appreciation for the discipline of legal reasoning with desires for responsive, humane judgment.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program
Sloan School of Management
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1162/DAED_a_00295
