The Symbolic Life of Law: The Instrumental and the Constitutive in Scheingold's The Politics of Rights

Stuart A. Scheingold's, ThePolitics of Rights, has left a considerableimprint on sociolegal scholarship. A centralfigure in the intellectual genealogy ofsociolegal studies, Scheingold has contributedto both instrumental and constitutiveapproaches to the study of law. Informing aninstrumental perspective, Scheingold's focus onlaw's symbolic life provides the foundation forexamining rights discourse and litigation aspolitical resources. Informing a constitutiveoutlook, Scheingold encourages an understandingof how law shapes our imaginations,aspirations, and expectations. After reviewinghis contribution to instrumentalism andconstitutivism, this essay suggests howScheingold offers the grounds for seeing theseoften divergent approaches as complementary.