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This paper explores the proposition that analyses of class appear to be missing from the law and society radar screen. For example, where does the voluminous empirical research on recent American welfare reform fit within law and society scholarship? And where are the global economic justice issues? Is class missing? If so, why? And where can we find it? [Please note: if you have received some number of paper and panel proposals regarding class issues, then I would be delighted to serve as a chair and/or discussant of such a panel, in lieu of presenting this paper.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Philippines and U.S. colonial empire as an example, this paper will show the ways that law serves as a vehicle for colonial hegemony, how the role of law is strictly connected to the construction of the state, and the way that law is also inseparable from issues of family, oligarchy, and social inequality. The Philippine and U.S. example will be related to the situation in other countries, especially in Asia, and different methods of colonial domination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I draw from whiteness studies and sociological race theory to examine American racialization. The framework I propose conceptualizes racialization in terms of three dimensions: formal, material, and symbolic; I apply these to analyze the racialized experiences of South Asian Americans (Americans who trace their ancestry back to the Indian subcontinent). My analysis presents racialization in terms of reflexive attributes rather than racial categories. Race is viewed primarily as access to 'whiteness,' with the negation of this access defined as 'otherness'; however, the dynamic model of race presented here can be also applied to other racial designations. To illustrate the utility of this framework, whiteness and otherness are examined as legal claims, ascriptions, and negations in the racialization of South Asian Americans, 1900 to present. Among the historic episodes analysed are the Thind decision and related court decisions on whiteness, changes in U.S. immigration policy and Census classifications, the 'model minority' stereotype, religious racialization, the political career of Bobby Jindal, and the recent "macaca" incident during the 2006 U.S. election campaign. I also discuss "blackness" as the primary (but not exclusive) category of "otherness" in the U.S. and present the implications of my analysis for American racialization in the 21st century. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]