Technocentrism in the Law School: Why the Gender and Colour of Law Remain the Same

Abstract

Despite valiant endeavours by feminist, critical race, and Queer scholars to transform the legal culture, the transformative project has been limited because of the power of corporatism, a phenomenon deemed marginal to the currently fashionable micropolitical sites of critical scholarship. However, liberal, as well as postmodern scholarship, has largely preferred to ignore the ramifications of the “new economy,” which includes a marked political shift to the right, the contraction of the public sphere, the privatization of public goods, globalization, and a preoccupation with efficiency, economic rationalism, and profits. This paper argues that technical reasoning, or “technocentrism,” has enabled corporatism to evade scrutiny. It explores the meaning of “technocentrism,” with particular regard to legal education. Because corporate power does not operate from a unitary site, but is diffused, the paper shows how it impacts upon legal education from multiple sites, from outside as well as inside the legal academy in a concerted endeavour to maintain the status quo.

Keywords: legal education, critical race, feminism, doctrinalism

JEL Classification: K19, I29