[3][4] Peller received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Emory University in 1977 and a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School where he served as a member of the Harvard Law Review.
[citation needed] Peller was one of the central figures at the Conference on Critical Legal Studies.
With Kimberlé Crenshaw, Peller co-authored a widely cited article, "The Contradictions of Mainstream Constitutional Theory", published in the UCLA Law Review, and co-edited one of the standard texts in critical race theory.
Peller is among the irrationalist branch of the critical legal studies movement, arguing that there is no neutral or objective rationality but rather what is understood as knowledge is a socially contingent result of prevailing power dynamics.
[6] He is also known for his debate with Mark Tushnet where he defended the critical race theorists' use of personal narrative rather than conventional arguments in their articles.