Book Description
This collection of papers explores many aspects of the signification and significance of power in law, in the light of current jurisprudential and postmodernist debates. With contributions by many prominent scholars, it will be essential reading for advanced students and researchers in jurisprudence and political science.
Excerpted from Law and Power by Kaarlo Tuori, Zenon Bankowski, Jyrki Uusitalo. Copyright © 1997. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Abstract of Sakari H nninen, "Power as Relation" (pp.31-49): In this article, power is depicted as a social relation connecting capacities, actions and consequences. Law is seen as a process of translating direct conflicts and disputes into juridically regulated debates and a process of finding solutions as interpretations to problems represented in these debates. This article examines how power is implicit in law by drawing attention to powers of translation, powers of representation and powers of interpretation. In this way, law's capacity to translate disputes is seen to structure privileges and opportunities, the capacity to represent a juridically translated dispute inscribes positions of subjects and the capacity to decide on articulated cases conditions aptitudes for action. In these three dimension of power, the topical questions addressed include the interfield competition between professional agencies, the medial technologies patterning legal practices and the discursive management of truth.
Abstract of Peter Fitzpatrick, "Relational Power and the Limits of Law" (pp.85-97): Theories of relational power claim to resolve the divide between law as autonomous and law as dependent - dependent on, say, society. The relation between law and society then becomes one of mutual influence. Yet, with relational theory, there is nothing to stop these entities disappearing in the relation. This chapter seeks to refine relational theory by showing that the `autonomy' of the entities should not be seen as given beforehand. `Autonomy' is, rather, created and sustained in the relation.
Abstract of Philippe G rard, "Democracy and the Legitimacy of Law" (pp. 175-184): This paper deals with the possible justification, from the point of view of democracy, of the legitimacy claim which is inherent in any legal norm. It suggests that this justification can be found in a rational process of will-formation based on the principles of equality and autonomy which characterise democracy. However, since democracy also implies a context of radical uncertainty within which the legitimacy claims appear as intrinsically disputable, it is argued that the rationality of this will-formation process cannot be assessed in the light of consensual theories of validity.
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