Law's Sacrifice

This volume examines the relationship between law and sacrifice as a crucial nexus for theorizing the dynamics of creation, destruction, transcendence, and violence within the philosophical and legal discourse of western society.

Autorentext

Brian W. Nail, Professor of English, Florida State College at Jacksonville

Jeffrey A. Ellsworth, Assistant Professor of Law and Society, Ramapo College of New Jersey

Klappentext

This volume examines the relationship between law and sacrifice as a crucial nexus for theorizing the dynamics of creation, destruction, transcendence, and violence within the philosophical and legal discourse of western society. At a time of populist political unrest, what philosophical and theoretical resources are available for conceptualizing the discontent that seems to emanate from practically every sphere of society? What narrative strategies have been employed within literary, theological, philosophical, and legal discourse to tame or mystify human violence? Engaging with the work of preeminent theorists of sacrifice, such as Georges Bataille, René Girard, Giorgio Agamben, and Jacques Derrida this collection examines from an interdisciplinary perspective the sacrificial logic that characterizes the cultural and political dynamics of law in society. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in the field of legal theory and philosophy.

Inhalt

Table of Contents

Contributing Authors

1. Introduction: Approaching the Problem of Sacrifice in Law, Literature, and Philosophy

   ** Brian W. Nail

2. Sacrifice and the Origin of Law

   ** Wolfgang Palaver

3. Towards a Sacrificial Aneconomy? Georges Bataille and the Aporia of Sacrifice

   ** Marie Chabbert

4. (Misguided) Self-transcendence and the Imagination of Sacrifice

   ** Arthur Cools

5. A We Not Modeled on the I, the Law of Law, and Futurity

   ** A. Samuel Kimball

6. Homo Sacrificus: Sacrificial Economization and Neoliberal Subjectivity

   ** Brian W. Nail

7. Law, Authority, and the Sovereign Exception: The (Im)possibility of Political Agency

   ** Richard Hajarizadeh

8. The Gift of Time and the Hour of Sacrifice: A Philosophical-Anthropological Analysis of the Deep Difference Between Political Liberal and Populist Politics

   ** Johan Van der Walt

9. Sacrificial Liberalism: The Politics of Zeal and its Selective Denial in Rawls's Political Liberalism

   ** Richard Mailey

10. The Sacrifice of Law's Madness

    Jeffrey A. Ellsworth