ABSTRACT
Legal positivism is the dominant legal theory in English speaking common law jurisdictions. It is Catharine MacKinnon, feminist legal commentator, who directly confronts the issue of law as power. It is this approach to both jurisprudence and law reform that has the most potential for changing unjust power differentials, not only for women, but for all disempowered people in liberal democratic societies. Legal positivists claim that laws set standards that are applied impartially to formally equal parties, and that law is an independent practice, completely separate from politics, ethics and religion. The critical legal studies movement in the United States, beginning in the 1970s, directly confronted liberal legalism, hoping not only to disturb the status quo, but also to overthrow it. Roberto Unger's early work was the main inspiration for the critical legal studies movement, and he remains the most significant spokesperson for the communitarian left.
