Book Review:

Theodore J. Lowi, Deconstructing American Law, 63 Texas L. Rev. 1591 (1984) (reviewing Bruce A. Ackerman’s Reconstructing American Law).
 

Abstract:
Bruce Ackerman’s Reconstructing American Law recounts the New Deal development of activist government – a phenomenon that required lawyers to develop a new legal language and conversation structure in order to retain power within legal and policy arenas. The legal profession’s reaction to this phenomenon temporarily took the form of legal realism. Ackerman asserts the relevance of legal realism has dissipated and that a new conversation form that both identifies rule-making actions within larger economic and political systems and comprehends the limits of such global markets is necessary. Professor Theodore Lowi responds to and rejects Ackerman’s proposed “Constructivist” theory in this book review.