Courts Liberalism And Rights: Gay Law And Politics In The United States and Canada

by Jason Pierceson

Overview

In the courts, the best chance for achieving a broad set of rights for gays and lesbians lies with judges who view liberalism as grounded in an expansion of rights rather than a constraint of government activity.

At a time when most gay and lesbian politics focuses only on the issue of gay marriage, Courts, Liberalism, and Rights guides readers through a nuanced discussion of liberalism, court rulings on sodomy laws and same-sex marriage, and the comparative progress gays and lesbians have made via the courts in Canada.

As debates continue about the ability of courts to affect social change, Jason Pierceson argues that this is possible. He claims that the greatest opportunity for reform via the judiciary exists when a judiciary with broad interpretive powers encounters a political culture that endorses a form of liberalism based on broadly conceived individual rights; not a negative set of rights to be held against the state, but a set of rights that recognizes the inherent dignity and worth of every individual.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781592134014
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	10/02/2005
Series:	Queer Politics Queer Theories
Edition description:	1
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

What People are Saying About This

Richard Pacelle

This is an excellent analysis of many of the legal issues dealing with sodomy and same-sex marriages and helps to explain why they have developed in the way that they have. The material is theoretically rich and grounded in diverse literature.