David M. Engel SUNY DISTINGUISHED SERVICE PROFESSOR EMERITUS JD, University of Michigan Law School MA, University of Michigan AB, Harvard University
dmengel@buffalo.edu
AREAS OF INTEREST
CHAPTERS
TORTS
Blood Curse and Belonging in
LAW AND SOCIETY
Thailand: Law, Buddhism, and
ASIAN LEGAL CULTURES
Legal Consciousness, in Thai Legal
LEGAL ETHNOGRAPHY
History: From Traditional
My research traces the ways
RIGHTS CONSCIOUSNESS
to Modern Law 89 (Andrew
in which rights become active,
Harding & Munin Pongsapan, eds.,
identities are forged, and law is
Cambridge University Press, 2021).
woven into the fabric of day-
BOOKS Injury and Injustice: The
Legal Consciousness (with Lynette
Cultural Politics of Harm and
Chua), in Routledge Handbook
Redress (Anne Bloom, David M.
of Law and Society (Marianna
Engel & Michael McCann, eds.,
Valverde, Kamari M. Clarke, Eve
Cambridge University Press, 2018).
Darian Smith & Prabha Kotiswaran,
to-day experiences. One line of work examines the earliest stages of the tort law system, when individuals suffer traumatic physical harms and, in most cases, refuse to lodge a
eds., Routlege Press, 2021).
claim or even consult a lawyer.
ARTICLES Judging and Judgment in Contemporary
Chairs, Stairs, and Automobiles: The
Asia: Editor’s Introduction to
Cultural Construction of Injuries and
Special Issue, 8 Asian Journal
the Failed Promise of Law, in Injury
of Law and Society 1 (2021).
and Injustice: The Cultural
I explain this overwhelming preference for law avoidance by drawing on interdisciplinary studies of injury and cognition. Another line of work explores
Politics of Harm and Redress 117 States of Uncertainty: The Origins
(Anne Bloom & Michael McCann, eds.,
of “Law and Community in Three
Cambridge University Press, 2018).
recent transformations in law, culture, and society in Southeast Asia, with particular
American Towns”, PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review
Looking Backward, Looking Forward:
Online (July 2020) (Special issue:
Past and Future Lives of “The Oven
Festschrift for Carol Greenhouse).
Bird’s Song,” in Insiders, Outsiders,
attention to Thailand.”
Injuries, and Law in the 21st Legal Consciousness Reconsidered (with
Century: Revisiting “The Oven Bird’s
Lynette Chua), 15 Annual Review of
Song” 279 (Mary Nell Trautner, ed.,
Law and Social Science, 335 (2019).
Cambridge University Press, 2018).
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