Local Knowledge, Local Color: Critical Legal Studies and the Law of Race Relations

In this Article, Professor Torres examines the meaning and content of Critical Legal Studies (CLS), focusing on the struggle for racial equality. He suggests ways in which understanding the relationship between law and culture can enable, both academics and practitioners, to construct theoretical foundations for the next generation of race relations. Understanding how the law of race relations has emerged and changed over the past twenty-five years is possible only by understanding how the dominant culture has accommodated itself to the changed legal landscape. Central to the inquiry is understanding American cultural pluralism as an expression of cultural domination and subordination within the context of race relations law.