The Trouble With the Adversary System in a Postmodern, Multicultural World

Abstract

This chapter suggests the heretical notion that the adversary system may no longer be the best method for our legal system to deal with all of the matters that come within its purview. It argues that epistemology has changed sufficiently in the era of poststructural, postmodern knowledge. The chapter reexamines the attributes of the adversary system as the "ideal type" of a legal system and the practice based on the premises of that system. It explores alternative models of legal process and ethics that will better meet the needs of more complex postmodern, multicultural disputes and issues. A culture of adversarialism, based on our legal system, has infected a wide variety of social institutions. The chapter primarily focuses on the legal system and legal ethics and considers how debate, argument, and adversarialism have, in recent years, dominated journalism, both print and electronic media, political campaigns, educational discourse, race relations, gender relations, and labor and management relations.

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