How can we characterise law and legal theory in the twenty-first century? Law After Modernity argues that we live in an age 'after Modernity' and that legal theory must take account of this fact. The book presents a dynamic analysis of law, which focusses on the richness and pluralism of law, on its historical embeddedness, its cultural contingencies, as well as acknowledging contemporary law's global and transnational dimensions.

However, Law After Modernity also warns that the complexity, fragmentation, pluralism and globalisation of contemporary law may all too easily perpetuate injustice. In this respect, the book departs from many postmodern and pluralist accounts of law. Indeed, it asserts that the quest for justice becomes a crucial issue for law in the era of legal pluralism, and it investigates how it may be achieved.

The approach is fresh, contextual and interdisciplinary, and, unusually for a legal theory work, is illustrated throughout with works of art and visual representations, which serve to re-enforce the messages of the book.

Auteur

Sionaidh Douglas-Scott is a fellow of Lady Margaret Hall and Professor of European and Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford.

Contenu

Introduction: Beyond the 'Degree Zero' of Law after Modernity
Jurisprudentia
Law and the Image
'Modernity'
'After' Modernity
'Law'
Beyond the 'Degree Zero' of Law in Modernity
Methodology
1. Autonomous Law or Redundant Law? The Elusive Nature of Legal Theory
  Autonomous Law
  Failures of Legal Autonomy
  Replacements and New Understandings
  A Broader Definition of Law?
  Against the 'One Big Thing'
2. Law as System: The Missing Multidimensionality of Law
  Methodical Law
  Undermining the System
  Beyond State Law
  Complexity and Interesting Relationships
  The Missing Multidimensionality of Law
  Multiple Relationships: 'Strange Loops and Tangled Hierarchies'
  Cubist Law? The Lack of a Singular Perspective
3. Reconfiguring the Legal Landscape: The Sojourn of Legal Pluralism
  Disorder, Entropy, Chaos: Is Law Like Literature?
  A Plurality of Laws and Legal Pluralism
  Problematic Pluralism
  Positive Crossings, Engagements and Perspectives: Turbulent Beauty?
  Visualising Law Today
  Conclusion
4. The Injustice of Law after Modernity
  Injustice, Insecurity and Flexible, Private Justice
  Globalisation and International Commerce
  Privatisation, Flexible Law, Governance and Insecurity
  Conclusion
5. Law, Justice and Injustice
  The Confusions of Justice
  The Proximity of Justice to Law
  Can Justice Ever Be Transnational?
  Transnational Justice
  Justice after Modernity
6. Legal Justice I: 'Maimed Justice' and the Rule of Law
  Maimed Justice
  A Common Conception of Justice? Justice and the Rule of Law
  The Shameful Absence of the Rule of Law
7. Legal Justice II: Reclaiming the Rule of Law from its 'Dark Side'-Critical Legal Justice
  The Critiques
  Against the Critiques
  The Need for the Rule of Law
  The Rule of Law Transfigured: Critical Legal Justice
  Conclusion
8. The Enigma of Human Rights
  A Conceptual Lack of Clarity
  Foundations
  Scepticism
  Why Then: An Historical Investigation
  Why Are We Still so Preoccupied with Human Rights?
  Juridification of Human Rights
  Pluralism, Complexity and Human Rights
9. Critical Legal Justice and Beyond: Cosmopolitanism
  Cosmopolitanism
  The Critique of Cosmopolitanism
  Cosmopolitan 'Law'?
  Conclusion
10. Beyond Cosmopolitanism: The Murky World of Governance and Global 'Justice'
  Reflexive Justice?
  Accountability
  Restorative and Responsive Justice
  Reinforcing Critical Legal Justice
  Anarchic Resistance to Injustice
11. Conclusion: Law and Justice after Modernity
  Diagnosis and Critique
  Justice
  Resistance and Demanding Justice