The use of affirmative action admissions practices in U.S. colleges and universities has been a source of contentious public debate and legal battles since the policy's inception in the 1960s. The legal challenges to race-conscious admissions will continue for the foreseeable future, including renewed court scrutiny on specific universities'…

The extent to which American legal education may have contributed and may be contributing to this society's use of litigation as a means of resolving conflict is considered. Legal scholarship fostered the development of a common law system which gave American courts vast, and largely unguided, lawmaking responsibilities. (MLW)