Doctoral Dissertation Research: Constructing Identity Through Legal Processes

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This research project considers how local cultures influence the application of laws such that the same legal issue can acquire very different meanings across even similar jurisdictions. Specifically, it examines the relationship of legal regimes to popular constructions of identity and the manner by which existing hierachies are re-inforced or re-constructed through legal processes. The research plan involves statistical analysis, content analysis of court documents, and interviews with attorneys. It considers these differences across divergent legal regimes.The results of this research could facilitate a better understanding of the way that legal institutions shape, and are shaped, by everyday social meanings. As such, these results could help identify the comprehensive relationship of legal processes to the popular understandings displayed by local cultures.