BEYOND INSTRUMENTAL POLITICS - THE NEW INSTITUTIONALISM, LEGAL RHETORIC, AND JUDICIAL SUPREMACY

Applications of the new institutionalism to the study of public law ar e often grounded in rational choice assumptions. This tends to reinfor ce a view of law and legal rhetoric as merely instrumental tools that foster certain institutional arrangements. This article proposes an al ternative application of the new institutionalism that, the author arg ues, offers an alternative vision of law and legal discourse which can be used both to sustain and to critique the political order.