Customer Reviews

Architect of Justice: Felix S. Cohen and the Founding of American Legal Pluralism

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Tsuk Mitchell's remarkable achievement melds political theory, law, philosophy, and our legal treatment of Native Americans into a wonderfully rich and sensitive intellectual biography of one of the last century's leading legal thinkers who, really quite by accident, also became the creator of modern American Indian law. She skillfully and subtly integrates the deep ideas underlying Cohen's different fields of interest and achievement and his early life influences into a coherent theory of legal pluralism as she analyzes, for the first time, his experiences as a second-generation Jewish immigrant, his education at the hands of leading philosophers and law teachers, his relationship with his father who was one of America's leading philosophers, and what he learned while working at the Department of the Interior during the New Deal.

This book is a terrific and enlightening read on its own. It is also, perhaps, the best account of the philosophy underlying our contemporary legal treatment of Native Americans. More than that, the book provides the reader with an alternative legal vision of communal life in an America characterized by great diversity, a vision that had real currency during the first half of the 20th century until it was eclipsed by individualism as our reigning mode of legal thought and action.

The story of Cohen's striving for justice for all, his successes, and his failures, provide important original insights into the development of modern America. Anybody interested in the way American values of acceptance, tolerance, and community can be integrated into a liberal democratic society will find this book must-reading.

Cohen was a man who deserved a biography, and in Tsuk Mitchell he got the biographer he deserved. The American Historical Association certainly knew what it was doing when it awarded this book its prestigious Littleton-Griswold Prize in 2007.

This is a major work of intellectual biography written by an associate professor of law at George Washington University here in Washington, D.C. The subject is a real giant in the field of American jurisprudence (and other areas as well) about whom we hear relatively little these days despite his many lasting accomplishments: Felix S. Cohen (1907-1953). I originally read this book because of Cohen's role as an important legal realist during the 1930"s (e.g., "Transcendental Nonsense and the Functional Approach"). I was pleasantly surprised to discover as I read this fine book that this was but one facet of his multi-dimensional activities and contributions.

Because the book is as rich as its subject, it is impossible to touch upon many points in a short review. The key focus of the author is to discuss Cohen and the development of his concepts of pluralism, group autonomy and group power, and how Cohen saw this dimension of American political (and legal) life as a source of important empirically-based values. The book effectively sketches Cohen's early life (and his relationship to his father Morris R. Cohen, the important CCNY philosopher). There is a helpful discussion of Cohen's first book, "Ethical Systems and Legal Ideas." Out of Columbia law, and not wanting to be a full-time academic, Cohen ended up (of all places) at the Department of the Interior where he remained a number of years. He got involved in Interior's role as trustee and administrator for the American Indians. It was within this context that Cohen worked out many of his key ideas about pluralism and decentralization, and he was deeply involved in the so-called "Indian New Deal" reform efforts. He also wrote the key book on Indian law which is still used today, and worked to get Jewish refugees resettled in Alaska or the Virgin Islands. One of the strengths of the book is the author is very effective in relating how Cohen's activities (such as while at Interior) influenced and shaped the development of his thought.

The author also discusses Cohen's post-Interior period in private practice where he handled a number of important Indian cases and continued to develop his efforts to develop a "conscious ethical criticism of law." He also taught law school and wrote or edited several books, including a basic jurisprudential collection with his father. One of the more interesting areas he worked in was attempting to tie the reliance upon precedent to particular values and their origins. His untimely death at 46 foreclosed what could have been amazing further contributions.

It is helpful to have handy when reading this book Cohen's collected articles and reviews edited by his wife, Lucy Cohen--"The Legal Conscience." There is but one problem I encountered with the book. The author, whose research is comprehensive, devotes a good chunk of the book to Indian related themes--since this is what Cohen spent much of his time being involved with. The detail here, as with the rest of the book, is exhaustive. However, if one is not particularly interested in this topic, it can really become a challenge to keep plowing through the extensive discussion. On the other hand, this is the environment that gave rise to much of Cohen's key contributions, and it is essential to understand this context. An extremely and quite extensive bibliography is included. By any measure, a book worthy of its subject.