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Critical Legal Studies Records

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Held at: Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers [Contact Us]

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Conference on Critical Legal Studies (Organization)

Critical Legal Studies was both a scholarly enterprise and a social movement within legal education, questioning the justice of law for people outside of existing power structures. The Critical Legal Studies Conference was held annually beginning in 1977 in Madison, Wisconsin.

The Public Policy Papers held within the Princeton University Library has embarked on a project to document the Critical Legal Studies (CLS) movement. These records represent the beginning of an initiative to collect material such as correspondence, memos, newsletters, meeting programs, posters, and other materials that document the emergence, growth, and activities of the movement in order to make them available for research.

Records include schedules of the annual Conference on CLS between 1977 and 1988, as well as the crit conference The Politics of Class in 1995; reading material for conferences; bound issues of the CLS newsletter published in Buffalo; and copies of papers written by CLS participants such as Gary Bellow, Gerald Frug, Alan Hyde, Duncan Kennedy, Al Katz, and Gary Young. The initial donation was received from Jay Feinman, and the records contain some of Feinman's remarks and material for organizing the seventh Conference on CLS at Rutgers University. A subsequent donation contains David Trubek's correspondence relating to CLS, and a donation from Peter Gabel contains photographs Gabel took at the CLS conference at the New College of California Law School in January, 1990.

Materials are arranged in the order in which they were received from the donors.

One box of records was donated by Jay Feinman in October 2018 (ML.2018.014); one folder of records by Rick Abel in October 2018 (ML.2018.017); and one folder of records by David M. Trubek in December 2018 (ML.2018.024). A box of photographs of the CLS conference in January, 1990 was donated by Peter Gabel in April, 2019 (ML.2019.010).

Correspondence, conference planning materials, and conference readings were donated by Mark Tushnet in 2020 (ML.2020.010).

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

Digitized recordings in this collection [identified by ML.2018.024] require mediated access through Mudd Library Public Services. Please contact reference staff via email to request access to these files.

This collection was processed by Phoebe Nobles in 2018 at the time of accessioning. Some materials were rehoused in archival folders and all materials were described in a finding aid.

Later additions were processed by Will Clements.

Duplicate copies of CLS newsletters were removed from the collection.

Publisher
Public Policy Papers
Finding Aid Date
2018
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, any copyright vested in the donor has passed to The Trustees of Princeton University and researchers do not need to obtain permission, complete any forms, or receive a letter to move forward with use of donor-created materials within the collection. For materials in the collection not created by the donor, or where the material is not an original, the copyright is likely not held by the University. In these instances, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have a question about who owns the copyright for an item, you may request clarification by contacting us through the Ask Us! form.

Collection Inventory

Newsletter of the Conference on Critical Legal Studies, 1987-1991. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Critical Legal Studies National Conference: Readings in Critical Legal Studies, ed. Jay Feinman, circa 1988. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Class and Identity Readings, Vol. 1 (The Politics of Class and the Construction of Identity Conference), 1995. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Class and Identity Readings, Vol. 2, 1995. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Class and Identity Readings, Vol. 3, 1995. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Class and Identity Readings, Vol. 4, 1995. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Papers--Frug, Hyde, 1980-1981. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Excerpt from "Property and Sovereignty," Gerald Frug; A Radical Critique of American Contract Law, Alan Hyde

Physical Description

1 box

Papers--Katz, Bellow, Young, Heller, 1976. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Studies in Boundary Theory, Al Katz; Turning Solutions into Problems: The Legal Aid Experience, Gary Bellow; The Market, Contract Law and Ideology, Gary Young; Justice and Capitalist Production: Marx and Bourgeois Ideology, Gary Young; Draft by Tom Heller

Physical Description

1 box

CLS Conference Materials, 1977-1988. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Newsletters, schedules, lists of participants, general correspondence

Physical Description

1 box

Seventh Conference on Critical Legal Studies, 1982-1983. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Material relating to organizing the conference at Rutgers

Physical Description

1 box

Readings and Materials for Conferences on CLS, 1978-1985. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Readings and Materials for Conferences on CLS, 1982-1983. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Readings and Materials for Conferences on CLS, 1984. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Papers by Duncan Kennedy, 1978-1984. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Jay Feinman Remarks and Materials on CLS in Legal Education, 1983-1986. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Buffalo CLS--Papers by Al Katz, 1982-1983. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

David Trubek Correspondence and Clippings, 1978-1988. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Talk by R.M. Unger, "The Critical Legal Studies Movement", 1982. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Photographs, 1990 January. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Photographs Peter Gabel took at the January, 1990 Critical Legal Studies Conference at the New College of California School of Law in San Francisco.

Physical Description

1 box

Photographs of CLS Trip to Poland and the Czech Republic, 1990. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Photographs of a CLS trip to Poland and the Czech Republic in spring 1990. Peter Gabel wrote about the trip in "Left Meets East."

Physical Description

1 box

Poster for the Third Annual Conference on Critical Legal Studies, 1979. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Third Annual Conference at New College in San Francisco, CA. Poster with pre-registration coupons.

Physical Description

1 box

2020 CLS Conference, Princeton University – Law and LAPA @ Princeton Special Conference Edition, 2021 June. 1 items.
Physical Description

1 items

Materials Viewable Online
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CLS Newsletter - Memorializing Mary Joe Frug, 1991 November. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

CLS Conference Posters, circa 1995. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Mark Tushnet Correspondence, Conference Planning Materials, and Conference Readings, 1976-1985. 4 boxes.
Physical Description

4 boxes

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