Canon construction as an interpretive exercise: A critical perspective

This paper argues that we should look at the project of canon construction as not merely a descriptive, but an interpretive exercise (channeling Dworkin) — and we should think carefully about how matters of experience and perspective (i.e. who is at the table) will shape what counts as canonical, and what cases are part of the canon. It aims to bring some recent projects on rewriting judgments from a feminist and postcolonial perspective into the debate on canons as a way of challenging the existing canon of leading judgments.