Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0002-8319-9080
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2020
Keywords
Vulnerability theory, Legal subjectivity, State responsibility, Resilience, Social institutions
Abstract
The theme of this Article for the SMU Law Review Forum focuses us on the challenges faced by the “economically disadvantaged” in the past decade and in the future. This framing is rooted in a distinction between that conceptual status of equality and the actuality of discrimination and disadvantage. This is the lens through which contemporary legal culture tends to assess the nature and effect of existing laws and determines the necessary direction of reform. As such, this paradigm provides the governing logic for both criticism and justification of the status quo. It is rooted in an understanding of the significance of the human being and a belief in their fundamental parity under law that also asserts the inherent value of individual liberty and autonomy, and thus is skeptical of state intervention into the “private” sphere of life.
First Page
51
Publication Title
SMU Law Review Forum
Recommended Citation
Martha Albertson Fineman, Beyond Equality and Discrimination, 73 SMU L. REV. F. 51 (2020).
Included in
Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Law and Society Commons, Social Justice Commons