Review: Modernism and the Grounds of Law

International Journal of Law in Context, 2008

Review of Peter Fitzpatrick's book "Modernism and the Grounds of Law" (FITZPATRICK, P. 2001. Modernism and the Grounds of Law. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 272 p)

Reading Modern Law Critical Methodologies , 2012

2010

Postmodernism is a term born of disputes or polemics between the 'moderns' and the 'postmoderns'. These disputes passed through the humanities and public discourse between the nineteen sixties and the late nineteen nineties. At its peak the dispute emerged as a distinct 'culture war'. For some postmodernism offered a way of revitalising and moving beyond the modern; for critics, it has been little more than a late flourish of romanticism and irrationalism. Like an earlier series of disputes waged in France and England between the 'ancients' and 'moderns' at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, the debates between the moderns and postmoderns concerned the character of our civilization and the conduct of our civility compared with those our past and of our neighbours. The range of the debates between the 'ancients' and 'moderns' is, somewhat surprisingly, comparable to those of our near present. On one reading battle lines were drawn between classical scholarship and modern science, between a past dominated by abstract contemplation and scholastic argument, and a

This paper is an attempt to outline characteristic features and claims of modernist and postmodernist trends in the contemporary philosophy of law and to show the importance of their present-day debate in the Globalization Era. The theories presenting a postmodernist view of law have developed a huge number of different, even contradictory, decisions. They can be divided into dialogical and critical theories. The first ones consider law as a self-developing system, and they put an emphasis on its internal communicative aspects. The critical theories are oriented to a rethinking of the most important modernist values. KEYWORDS: philosophy of law, postmodernsim, technological and dialogical theories of law This paper is an attempt to outline characteristic features and claims of modernist and postmodernist trends in the contemporary philosophy of law and to show the importance of their present-day debate. Postmodernism can be considered as a new philosophical project with radical critical spearheadedness and as a new stage in the development of industrial societies in the Globalization Era. The "modernist project" is a product and ideology of the intellectual revolution in Europe in the 17th century. It has its roots in a concept of universal values and in the unified rational order of nature, society and the human race. Science and technologies are perceived of by it as tools of rationalization, of social relationships. Postmodernist criticism orientates the contemporary philosophy, and culture as a whole, to a rejection of the absolute commitment to great rational ideas and principles inherited from the Enlighten. It stands for and advocates a return to local, qualitative differences and conformity with the fragmentation of subject and society-to replace the pursuit of global human control of nature and

2009

First, many thanks to Carrie Menkel-Meadow, the editors of The International Journal of Law In Context and the sponsors of this series for facilitating this lecture, and for inviting my participation. And a special thank you to Professor Roger Cotterrell for sharing with us such a generous, humanistic and hopeful account of law’s moral possibilities, when faced with multicultural conflict within a society governed by a liberal rule of law. I very much appreciate the opportunity to reflect on this set of claims, although I feel somewhat an outsider to the task, as I’ll explain below. I understand Professor Cotterrell as arguing, first, that traditional Anglo-American jurisprudence has not sufficiently theorised the role of culture and cultures, second, that multiculturalism renders inadequate, for different reasons, both Weberian and non-positivist or non-instrumental accounts of law’s liberal aspirations, and third, that one possible way for law to contribute constructively to a mor...

1997

Beginnings are desperate places, no less when it comes to thanking a group of people. Most immediately, however, I wish to thank my chief supervisor, Gregor McLennan. His apparently unerring faith in me, his non-directive guidance, inspiring teaching, and ceaseless encouragement are strengths that I have treasured. To my second supervisor, Dave Bums, I also owe my thanks for encouraging me to launch out on this venture. His warm friendship has been a sustaining power in this work. Others, also, have been invaluable sources of support and stimulation. Among the many, I wish to single out Catherine Brennan for the numerous and evocative discussions that we have had on social and legal theory. Barbara Grant, also, is important to me; her advice on writing processes was tremendous. Moreover, I am grateful to all those who participated in seminars that I spoke to at Massey University and the 24th Annual Conference of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control, at the University of Wales, Bangor. To my family, fmally, I owe a series of debts that I could never hope to repay. To Glen, Kirsten, Luke, Brayden, Laurie, Noeleen, and Karen, many thanks. Preface Hi 4 3.3. 1 Epistemological constructivism 3.3.2 The ontology of epistemological constructivism 3.3.3 Political projects 3.4 Conclusion Post-Realist Legal Pluralism 4.0 Introduction 4.1 The Nature of Law 4. 1.1 Initial quests for explanatory theory 4. 1.2 Assaults on explanatory theory 4. 1.3 The retrieval of explanatory theory 4.2 Post-Realist Legal Subjectivity 4.3 Post-Realism and Multicultural Law 4.3. 1 Qualified optimism toward centralised law 4.3.2 Toward a decentered conception of law 4.4 Conclusion 5 Post-Modern Legal Pluralism 5.0 Introduction 5.1 Post-Modern Critiques of Law 5.2 Post-Modern Legal Subjectivity 5.2. 1 Countermythic legal subjectivity 5.2.2 Subjectivity and the law of the contingent 5.3 Post-Modernism and Multicultural Law 5.3. 1 The impossibility of a countermythic multicultural Law 5.3.2 The hope of a contingent multicultural Law 5.3.2. J Justice and the feminine 5.3.2.2 Justice and Destiny 5.4 Conclusion Vlll

Law, Crime and History, 2011