Book contents
- Injury and Injustice
- Cambridge Studies in Law and Society
- Injury and Injustice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Injury and the Construction of Legal Subjects
- Chapter One The Meaning of Injury
- Chapter Two Injury in the Unresponsive State
- Chapter Three “One Small Characteristic”
- Chapter Four Righteous Injuries
- Part II Constructing Injury and Imagining Remedies
- Part III Inequality and/as Injury
- Conclusion
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Law and Society
- References
Chapter Two - Injury in the Unresponsive State
Writing the Vulnerable Subject into Neo-Liberal Legal Culture
from Part I - Injury and the Construction of Legal Subjects
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2018
Book contents
- Injury and Injustice
- Cambridge Studies in Law and Society
- Injury and Injustice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Injury and the Construction of Legal Subjects
- Chapter One The Meaning of Injury
- Chapter Two Injury in the Unresponsive State
- Chapter Three “One Small Characteristic”
- Chapter Four Righteous Injuries
- Part II Constructing Injury and Imagining Remedies
- Part III Inequality and/as Injury
- Conclusion
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Law and Society
- References
Summary
In this chapter, Fineman considers the limited ways in which “injury” or harm is understood in American political and legal culture. She argues that current conceptions of injury or harm are anchored in the principle of individual liberty, compelling a presumption of state nonintervention or inaction. As a result, absent impermissible discrimination, the state is deterred from responding to the needs of individuals living in poverty or suffering social, economic, and material disadvantage. Fineman traces this stance to the idealized, independent, and individualized liberal legal subject, which, she argues, ignores the lived experiences of all but a privileged few in society. Fineman argues for a legal subject that is embodied, and therefore vulnerable and of necessity embedded in social relationships and institutions. The “vulnerable legal subject” is a just and inclusive alternative to the liberal legal subject; one that moves beyond a cramped concept of individual responsibility to mandate a state, laws, and social institutions responsive to human vulnerability.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Injury and InjusticeThe Cultural Politics of Harm and Redress, pp. 50 - 75Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018
References
Alperovitz, Gal and Daly, Lew. (2008). Unjust Deserts: How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Barak, Aharon. (2002). “Foreword: A Judge on Judging: The Role of the Supreme Court in a Democracy.” Harvard Law Review 116:19–162.Google Scholar
Boyd, Julian P, editor. (2017). “Letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison.” Pp. 392–4 in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 15: March 1789 to November 1789.Google Scholar
Brooks, David. (2015). “Op-Ed., The Cost of Relativism.” New York Times, March 10. www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/opinion/david-brooks-the-cost-of-relativism.html?_r=1 (accessed November 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Chemerinsky, Erwin. (2000). “The Jurisprudence of Justice Scalia: A Critical Appraisal.” University of Hawai'i Law Review 22(2):385–402.Google Scholar
Center for Responsive Politics. (2013a). “Lobbying: Agribusiness Sector Profile 2013.” OpenSecrets.org. www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indus.php?id=A&year=2013 (accessed November 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Center for Responsive Politics. (2013b). “Lobbying: Livestock Industry Profile, Summary 2013.” OpenSecrets.org. www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indusclient.php?id=a06&year=2013 (accessed November 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert. (1982). Dilemmas of Pluralist Democracy: Autonomy vs. Control. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
“Food Stamps are Affordable; Corporate Welfare is Not.” (2017). Daily Take. Truth-out.org. www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/19844-food-stamps-are-affordable-corporate-welfare-is-not (accessed November 3, 2017) [cited as Daily Take 2017].Google Scholar
Dauber, Michele Landis. (2012). The Sympathetic State: Disaster Relief and the Origins of the American Welfare State. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dayen, David. (2015). “A Needless Default.” The American Prospect Longform, February 8. www.prospect.org/article/needless-default (accessed November 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Deneen, Patrick J. (2012). “Unsustainable Liberalism.” First Things (August/September 2012):25–31.Google Scholar
Deschamps, Jean-Claude. (2010). “Social Identity and Relations of Power between Groups,” In Social Identity and Intergroup Relations, ed. Tajfel, Henri. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Eberstadt, Nicholas. (2015). “American Exceptionalism and the Entitlement State.” National Affairs 22(Winter):25–38. www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/american-exceptionalism-and-the-entitlement-state (accessed November 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Eichner, Maxine. (2005). “Dependency and the Liberal Polity: On Martha Fineman's ‘The Autonomy Myth.’” California Law Review 93(4):1285–86.Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha Albertson. (2004). The Autonomy Myth: A Theory of Dependency. New York, NY: The New Press.Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha Albertson. (2008). “The Vulnerable Subject: Anchoring Equality in the Human Condition.” Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 20(1):1–23.Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha Albertson. (2010). “The Vulnerable Subject and the Responsive State.” The Emory Law Journal 60:251–75.Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha Albertson. (2012a). “Beyond Identities: The Limits of an Antidiscrimination Approach to Equality.” Boston University Law Review 92:1713–70.Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha Albertson. (2012b). “‘Elderly’ as Vulnerable: Rethinking the Nature of Individual and Societal Responsibility.” The Elder Law Journal 20(1):101–41.Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha Albertson. (2013). “Feminism, Masculinities, and Multiple Identities.” Nevada Law Journal 13(2):619–39.Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha Albertson. (2014). “Vulnerability, Resilience, and LGBT Youth.” Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review 23:307–29.Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha Albertson. (2015). “Equality and Difference – The Restrained State.” Alabama Law Review 66(3):609–23.Google Scholar
Frick, Walter. (2015). “Welfare Makes America More Entrepreneurial.” The Atlantic, March 26. www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/welfare-makes-america-more-entrepreneurial/388598/ (accessed November 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Johnston, David Kay. (2014). “The Shocking Numbers Behind Corporate Welfare.” Al Jazeera America, February 25. america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/2/corporate-welfaresubsidiesboeingalcoa.html.Google Scholar
Katzand, Cheryl. (2012). “People in Poor Neighborhoods Breathe More Hazardous Particles.” Scientific American, November 1. www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-poor-neighborhoods-breate-more-hazardous-particles/ (accessed November 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Kiel, Paul. (2012). “The Bailout: By the Actual Numbers.” ProPublica, September 6. www.propublica.org/article/the-bailout-by-the-actual-numbers (accessed November 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Kirby, Michael. (2001). “Think Globally.” The Green Bag 2d (Spring):287–95. www.greenbag.org/v4n3/v4n3_dialogue_kirby.pdf (accessed November 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Kirby, Peadar. (2006). Vulnerability and Violence: The Impact of Globalization. Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Kordana, Kevin A. (1997). “Tax Increases in Municipal Bankruptcies.” Virginia Law Review 83:1035–108.Google Scholar
Kotowitz, Y. (1987). “Moral Hazard.” Pp. 549–51, In The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, Volume 3, ed. Eatwell, John, Milgate, Murray and Newman, Peter. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Leef, George. (2013). “Op-Ed., Trickle-Down Economics – The Most Destructive Phrase of All Time?” Forbes, December 6. www.forbes.com/sites/georgeleef/2013/12/06/trickle-down-economics-the-most-destructive-phrase-of-all-time/ (accessed November 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Levi, Lili. (2011). “Plan B for Campaign-Finance Reform: Can the FCC Help Save American Politics After Citizens United?” Catholic University Law Review 61:97–104.Google Scholar
Liptak, Adam. (2012). “We the People’ Loses Appeal with People around the World.” New York Times, February 6. www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/us/we-the-people-loses-appeal-with-people-around-the-world.html.Google Scholar
Locke, John. ([1689] 1988). Two Treaties of Government, ed. Laslett, Peter. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nixon, Ron. (2014). “Senate Passes Long-Stalled Farm Bill, With Clear Winners and Losers.” New York Times, February 4. www.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/us/politics/senate-passes-long-stalled-farm-bill.html (accessed November 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Offer, Avner. (2012). “Self-Interest, Sympathy and the Invisible Hand: From Adam Smith to Market Liberalism.” www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/economics/history/Paper101/offer101.pdf (accessed November 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Pildes, Richard H. (2011). “Why the Center Does Not Hold: The Causes of Hyperpolarized Democracy in America.” California Law Review 99:10–47.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. (2015). Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Ross, Catherine E. and Van Willigen, Marieke. (1997). “Education and the Subjective Quality of Life.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 38(3):275–97.Google Scholar
Senior, Jennifer. (2013). “In Conversation: Antonin Scalia.” New York Magazine, October 6. http://nymag.com/news/features/antonin-scalia-2013-10/ (accessed November 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Story, Louise. (2012). “As Companies Seek Tax Deals, Government Pays High Price.” New York Times, December 1. www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/us/how-local-taxpayers-bankroll-corporations.html?_r=1& (accessed November 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Titlestad, Peter James Hilary (2010). “Liberalism.” English Academy Review 27(2):94–100.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, Richard and Pickett, Kate. (2010). The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Press.Google Scholar
Witte, John Jr. and Nichols, Joel A.. (2016). Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment, 4th ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Yang, Jia Lynn. (2013). “Maximizing Shareholder Value: The Goal That Changed Corporate America.” The Washington Post, August 26. www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/maximizing-shareholder-value-the-goal-that-changed-corporate-america/2013/08/26/26e9ca8e-ed74-11e2-9008-61e94a7ea20d_story.html?utm_term=.78e4f69c3c4f (accessed October 19, 2018).Google Scholar
- 7
- Cited by