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Literature for legal philosophy course spring 1999
Law and
the spectre of postmodernism
1. Welcome and introduction (27/01)
2. Steven Connor, Postmodernities: postmodern social and legal theory; in:
id., Postmodern culture; Blackwell 1989 (1997 2nd ed), 23-74 (03/02)
*
Basic features of postmodernism, through discussions of Lyotard,
Baudrillard and selected authors on law
3. Fred Dallmayr, Hermeneutics and the rule of law; Gerald Bruns, Law and
language, 3-40 (both in Gregory Leyh (ed.), Legal hermeneutics; University
of California press 1992), 3-40 (10/02)
* What can be seen 'hidden' in a legal text? A short overview of radical
and conservative approaches to interpretation.
4. Michel Rosenfeld, Just interpretations; University of California press
1998, ch. 1: Deconstruction and legal interpretation, 11-32 (17/02)
*
Deconstruction is not destructive of law; on the contrary,. it can solve
the 'crisis in legal interpretation'
5. Stanley Fish, Almost pragmatism; in: Brint & Weaver (eds.), Pragmatism
in law and society; Westview 1991, 47-82; and id., Force; in: Doing What
Comes Naturally, Oxford un. press 1989, 503-524 (03/03)
*
Deconstructive moves on Posner, Rorty, Hart, and Dworkin
6.
Rosenfeld, ch.2 (part): The temptations of the new legal formalism, 33-45;
and David Rasmussen, Rights, narrative and legal practice, in: Leonore
Langsdorf a.o. (eds.), Reinterpreting the political; SUNY 1998, 155-169
(10/03)
* Discussions on and around Stanley Fish
7. Rosenfeld, ch.3: Law, violence, and the paradox of justice, 55-85
(17/03)
* How can interpretations be linked to the pursuit of justice? The
impossibility of justice and the inevitability of violence.
8.
Rosenfeld, ch.6: Using pragmatism, 150-195 (24/03)
* On Posner and
Rorty's pragmatism and 'justice without
metaphysics'
9. Diana Meyers, Subjection and subjectivity; Routledge 1994, chs 6+7:
Empathic thought and the politics of rights, 119-169 (07/04)
* Rights
talk, identity, and justice
10. Diana Coole, Habermas and the question of alterity; in: Maurizio
Passerin d'Entreves and Seyla Benhabib (eds.), Habermas and the unfinished
project of modernity; Polity press, 221-244 (14/04)
* Postmodern strategies as possible dimensions of emancipatory
politics
11. David Ingram, The subject of justice in postmodern discourse; in: id.,
269-301 (21/04)
* Confronting Habermas and Lyotard on justice.
12. Judith Butler, Sovereign performatives; in: id., Excitable speech;
Routledge 1997, 71-102 (28/04)
* On power, subjectivity, and the ontology of 'hate speech'
13.
Jacques Derrida, Force of law; in: Drucilla Cornell a.o. (eds.),
Deconstruction and the possibility of justice; Routledge 1992, 3-67
(12/05)
14. Final session: review and evaluation (19/05)
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