Legal Public Space: Stories in Daily Life

Author: Yuik (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: The Public Space of Law—Stories from Everyday Life belongs to this emerging field of research, aiming to examine how ordinary citizens understand and use law, as well as how they contribute to its production and formation. This book provides a picture of how legal rules operate in popular culture and society, and also offers a theory of how law can persist as a powerful, enduring, and stable institution throughout history. When people think about and discuss law, they do not imagine or describe it as a single, unified legal ideal, as is often celebrated in official documents and textbooks. Instead, people describe law in at least three different ways. The rules of law contain these multiple meanings and actions, which together constitute the mechanisms and structures of legitimacy. The Public Space of Law reveals through stories from everyday life the diverse ways people engage with and treat law. Some may hire a lawyer because their neighbor's dog has disrupted their trash, while others can endure losses and suffering caused by defective products, failed surgeries, or discrimination. So, what does this vast difference in perspective mean? To what extent do Americans understand their lives through legal concepts and processes? We seek to explore the meaning of law in the lives of Americans, including the extent to which they actively and enthusiastically use law, as well as why people may reject it. In short, we aim to understand the significance of law in the daily lives of Americans. The writing of this book was commissioned by the Minority Affairs Office of the New Jersey Supreme Court to assist them in investigating whether racial discrimination exists in the courts of New Jersey and, if so, in what ways. What is particularly important is that the office suggested that a significant and harmful form of racial disparity may be the differences in the extent to which some minority groups actively use the law and access the courts. The office appears to be convinced that when people face the choice of using legal procedures (such as calling the police, filing complaints, or filing lawsuits), minorities are more likely than non-minorities to choose not to use these procedures. In other words, if Americans have a romantic view of law, it is not a universal phenomenon.