Legal Archaeology

In: Political research quarterly: PRQ ; official journal of the Western Political Science Association and other associations, Band 64, Heft 2

Abstract

This article proposes a mode of analysis drawing from historical institutionalism and American political development but that is generated more organically from within the study of law. This approach, legal archaeology, focuses on the production of legal discourse while attending to the institutional boundaries and conditions around this production. Legal archaeology is particularly useful for understanding the role of law in constructing subordinated identities. Illuminating legal struggles over the boundaries of subordinated identities facilitates consideration of how subordination is institutionalized, though archaeology maintains legal institutions at the center of the analysis. The article concludes with examples of the analysis. Adapted from the source document.