Critical Legal Studies

American movement

Also known as: CLS

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June 17, 2026

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Critical Legal Studies (CLS) is an American intellectual movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. It is a radicalization of legal realism and is inspired by Marxist critical theory. CLS scholars examine how laws and legal institutions primarily serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful, often at the expense of the poor and marginalized.

CLS critiques traditional legal frameworks, arguing that they are not neutral but rather perpetuate existing social hierarchies. While CLS shares intellectual roots with Critical Race Theory (CRT), CRT specifically focuses on how race and racism are embedded within legal systems and institutions in the United States.12

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critical race theory
Background and early history
Its immediate precursor was the critical legal studies (CLS) movement, which dedicated itself to examining how laws and legal institutions serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the poor and marginalized. (CLS, an offshoot of Marxist-oriented critical theory, may also be viewed as a radicalization…
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Its immediate precursor was the critical legal studies (CLS) movement, which dedicated itself to examining how laws and legal institutions serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the poor and marginalized. (CLS, an offshoot of Marxist-oriented critical theory, may also be viewed as a radicalization…
Read More

deconstruction
Deconstruction in the social sciences and the arts
In the United States, the Critical Legal Studies movement applied deconstruction to legal writing in an effort to reveal conflicts between principles and counterprinciples in legal theory. The movement explored fundamental oppositions such as public and private, essence and accident, and substance and form. In anthropology, deconstruction contributed to an…
Read More
In the United States, the Critical Legal Studies movement applied deconstruction to legal writing in an effort to reveal conflicts between principles and counterprinciples in legal theory. The movement explored fundamental oppositions such as public and private, essence and accident, and substance and form. In anthropology, deconstruction contributed to an…
Read More