White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race

Abstract

Emerging within the tradition of Critical Race Theory,Stanford law professor Ian Haney Lopez's new book systematically evaluates how the law creates and maintains races.He shows how the term "white person"was legally defined by U.S. state and federal courts by identifying who was "non-White,"using a questionable mixture of science and common knowledge.He explores the processes by which legal institutions andbpracticesbfabricaterbace, highlighting the courts' constant struggles to set explicit parameters of racial identity. While his research is based upon the technicalities of legal cases,this book never becomes bogged down in law-review prose.