FOUCAULT AND LAW: Towards A Sociology Of Law As Governance (Law and Social Theory) - Softcover

Hunt, Alan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0745308422 ISBN 13: 9780745308425

Publisher: Pluto Press, 1994

Synopsis

'An inspirational work that will change the way we think about the legal order.' Professor Pat O'Malley, La Trobe University

'This lively and lucid book will do much to show the importance of viewing law as an aspect of governmentality.' Professor David Garland, University of Edinburgh

When he died in 1984, Michel Foucault was regarded as one of the most profoundly influential philosophers of his day. Although the law itself never formed a central focus for Foucault, many of the principal themes in his writings are concerned with issues of governance and power that are of direct relevance to the study of law. And yet, until now, Foucault's work has attracted only fleeting attention from the legal academy.

Foucault and Law corrects this oversight. Opening with a lucid, critical and unpretentious account of Foucault's work, Hunt and Wickham map out a terrain of methodological and theoretical principals, providing the groundwork for a new sociology of law as governance.

About this title

Review

'An inspirational work that will change the way we think about the legal order.' Professor Pat O'Malley, La Trobe University 'This lively and lucid book will do much to show the importance of viewing law as an aspect of governmentality.' --Professor David Garland, University of Edinburgh

Synopsis

This work introduces Michel Foucault's ideas on law to both graduate and undergraduate students, making no assumptions of prior reading of Foucault's work. It offers a brief overview of the significance and implications of Foucault's corpus of work before providing an exposition of his thought on law. The discussion is organized around a number of themes that run through Foucault's writings, particularly his tendency to counterpoise law and modernity, viewing law as associated with pre-modern political forms. The book concludes with an exploration of the sociology of governance as applied to law, drawing on the work of Durkheim and Weber as well as on Foucault's own material.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0745308422
• ISBN 13: 9780745308425
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160