Perspective

Patricia Williams is a professor of law at Columbia University who teaches law at Dartmouth. Born in 1951, she earns her law degree in 1975 from Harvard Law School. Williams is a prominent proponent of critical legal theory and critical race theory. She therefore emphasizes the indeterminacy and deeply political nature of law and believes that race should be treated as a separate category within the law. On these grounds and because of her experience as a black woman, Williams is a strong defender of racial preferences in the law and affirmative action generally.

The Alchemy of Race and Rights is the first of a number of Williams' books. It details the reasons why she is a member of the critical legally theory movement and explains her critiques of the movement as well. Williams argues that critical legal theory should make room for the recognition of rights as a way...