Harvard Law School Flashback

Before Critical Legal Studies morphed into Critical Race Theory

Kenny Xu wrote a piece at The Federalist titled “Critical Race Theory’s Poisonous Roots Trace Back to Harvard University,” in which he describes how current “critical race theory” grew directly out of a Harvard Law School movement called “critical legal studies.”  As Xu writes, “a group of Ivy League law professors developed a school of thought called ‘critical legal studies,’ synthesizing [Antonio] Gramsci’s theory of [capitalist] hegemony with racial classification. The most important thinkers of the group of critical legal theorists were all Harvard Law professors: Derrick Bell, Roberto Unger, Duncan Kennedy, and Morton Horwitz.  The main tenets of the philosophy included that justice is inherently subjective, the law is nothing but a political tool, and the system will only ever provide good outcomes for the wealthy and privileged.”

I was going through some old files and came across this copy of a cartoon I drew while I was a law student at Harvard Law School in the early 1990’s.  I had joined a social club called Lincoln’s Inn, which was open to all law students.  When the club existed, it would hold an annual Christmas dinner that featured a poster designed by a current law student for everyone to sign.  One year they asked me to draw the poster, and here’s a copy of what I drew:

In it, you see law professors Duncan Kennedy (on the left) and Morton Horowitz (on the right) preparing to hang Lady Justice by laying a “CRITS” brand on the horse she sits on.  CRITS was short for proponents of critical legal studies.

In the background you see then-Dean Robert Clark peeking from behind a cactus with a sheriff’s badge, and Professor Phil Areeda, a wonderful contracts law professor who adhered strictly to legal principles, running out of the saloon to stop them.

At the bottom right corner of the poster are the signatures of the students who attended the dinner.  (One signature that stands out like the giant John Hancock on the Declaration of Independence is that of the great Hans Bader, who used to work at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.)

Incidentally, I modeled the poster on this poster for an old Tex Avery cartoon, which still hangs in my bathroom.

I had Morton Horowitz as a torts law professor.  I never had Duncan Kennedy, but he was pretty well known around campus for his world views and I parodied him in a comic strip called “Liabilities” that I drew for the law school paper, the Harvard Law Record.  Here are a couple that feature Duncan Kennedy:

I’ll post some more of my old cartoons from my law school days in the future.

Lincoln’s Inn doesn’t exist anymore at Harvard, and I’ve always wondered what happened to those old hand-drawn Lincoln’s Inn Christmas dinner posters that go back many years, some of which were signed by future Supreme Court Justices.  If anyone has any information about where those old posters might be now, please let me know.

Links to all essays in this series: Part1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8; Part 9; Part 10; Part 11; Part 12

Collected essays in this series

Short video documentary on problems with popular critical race theory texts

Harvard Law School flashback