Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Projecting Power
Search
Search
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Stoddard 1997
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Special pages
Page information
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== "Bleeding Heart: Reflections On Using the Law to Make Social Change" pp.967-982== Thesis: understanding the interrelationship between law and culture, and the use of law for social change *Goals of legal advocates for gay rights: # Protection from discrimination # Freedom from intrusion and harassment # Some degree of recognition of queer relationships *New York is culturally more tolerant of queerness, but legally offers no protections/recognition *New Zealand is culturally intolerant of queerness, but legally offers protections/recognition *Assumptions: #Society needs change, and there are people committed to that change #Employing the law to make change is appropriate === i. The New Zealand Conundrum === *The 'conundrum': New Zealand is legally progressive with respect to queer protections, but is culturally conservative in this respect *social change and legal change do not always walk hand-in-hand **"one does not stimulate the other" === ii. A Paradigm of Reform === *Goals of lawmaking #To create new rights and remedies for victims #To alter the conduct of the government #To alter the conduct of citizens/private entities #To express a new moral/standard #To change cultural attitudes/patterns **"rule-shifting": the traditional role of the law in expressing the formal rulemaking/enforcement function for society ***the first three goals comprise this role **"culture-shifting": advancing the rights and interests of people who have been treated poorly by the law and by the culture, promoting values that should be rights *** the fourth and fifth goals comprise this role *The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("The Act") **it had both "rule" and "cultural-shifting" power and met all five goals of lawmaking **the Act was the result of "passionate and informal national debate" among Americans that lasted a decade, and this debate is what gave the Act its "culture-shifting" power **because the Act was passed by Congress it was received as more legitimate, giving it "rule-shifting" power === iii. When "Rule-Shifting" Becomes "Culture-Shifting" === *Factors that determine when "rule-shifting" becomes "culture-shifting": #A change that is broad or profound #Public awareness of that change #A general sense of the legitimacy (or validity) of the change #continuous enforcement of the change **"culture-shifting" requires all four ==== a. The Breath of Change ==== *Some forms of "rule-shifting" are "so grand or so pervasive" that they inevitably become "culture-shifting" **ex: The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Anti-smoking laws **these "pervasive" "rule-shifting" laws must be "known, accepted, and enforced" in order to have "culture-shifting" power ==== b. Public Awareness of Change ==== *ordinary citizens must be aware that a "rule-shift" has taken place in order for "culture-shifting" to occur *changes that happen at the legislative level typically gain more public awareness than those that happen at the judicial or administrative levels **legislative lawmaking processes are typically more public, leading to more debate among constituents, allowing for a more significant "rule"/"culture-shifting" effect
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Projecting Power may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Projecting Power:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Toggle limited content width