What Counts As Knowledge? A Reflection on Race, Social Science, and the Law

Bibliographic Data

ID4084426
AuthorsRachel F Moran (0000-0003-3771-3349, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume44
Issue3-4
Pages515-552
Publication date2010-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLaw & Society Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-9216 • E-ISSN: 1540-5893
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1540-5893.2010.00415.x
OpenAlexW2112065183
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited31

In the years since the U.S. Supreme Court handed downBrown v. Board of Education(1954), most discussions of the case have focused on whether it was effective in promoting lasting equality of opportunity in the public schools. Although this profoundly important question dominates retrospectives onBrown, another unresolved controversy relates to whether the ruling has altered in any fundamental way the role of social science evidence in constitutional litigation. More than 50 years later, substantial disagreement persists about whether this kind of research has played or should play any important role in the jurisprudence of race. Today, social scientists face increasing doubts about their neutrality and objectivity, struggle to be heard in a marketplace of ideas increasingly flooded with information of questionable quality, and encounter growing resistance to the notion that expertise provides a proper foundation for legal decisionmaking. For those who still believe that social science has a role to play in advancing racial justice, the strategy used inBrowncan no longer be taken for granted. The time is ripe to reassess what counts as knowledge so that social science is not increasingly marginalized in courts of law

Economic Justice · Epistemology · Jurisprudence · Neutrality · Objectivity (philosophy · Political science · Race (biology · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · Supreme court · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Legal Education and Practice Innovations · Legal Systems and Judicial Processes

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