The Law of Things

On the Return of the Precritical
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-27351-6
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 192 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 281 g

The Law of Things examines how law operates not only through words but through things, systematically conferring upon the world, the State, the people, sex, race, nature, and culture a thingly materiality treated as outside language, representation, and perception. It argues that law, in thingifying what it encounters, makes use of a precritical and authoritarian epistemology that forecloses contestation across legal and political life.

Drawing on intellectual history, critical theory, poststructuralism, linguistics, and Science & Technology Studies, the book offers a wholly original framework for understanding how thingness functions as a mode of governance. It reveals the discursive mechanics by which law renders its objects aconstructed and self-evident, producing zones of uncriticability that silence the speaking observer and narrow the space of critique. Chapter by chapter, it defines thingification as a distinct epistemic operation, traces its lineage through the history of thought, diagnoses its contemporary resurgence, maps seven domains in which law endows what it encounters with thingness, exposes the fascist grammar that shadows such epistemologies, and develops a counter-posture (countermateriality) that upholds a minimal materiality necessary for law to remain a tool of interruption and resistance. The book thus does not merely lament the return of precritical thinking. It also defends the constructivist conditions under which critique itself can survive.

This book speaks to legal scholars, legal philosophers, intellectual historians, and critical theorists, as well as anyone engaged with contemporary debates in epistemology, discourse studies, and political thought.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

d'Aspremont, Jean

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction 1. Becoming a Thing 2. Thingness Then and Now 3. The Golden Age of Thingification 4. Figures of Legal Thingification 5. The Fascist Grammar of Thingness 6. Countermateriality 7. Epilogue: A Dinner at Fayard

Über Autor(innen)

Jean d’Aspremont is Professor of Legal Philosophy and International Legal Theory at Sciences Po Law School. He also teaches at the University of Manchester and at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva. His work spans multiple disciplines within legal theory and philosophy. He has authored more than two dozen books and published over 200 articles addressing questions of legal theory, international legal theory, philosophy of law, hermeneutics, and poststructuralism. His scholarship also encompasses the history of international legal thought, contributing to a deeper understanding of how legal ideas have evolved. His intellectual influence extends globally, with his work translated into numerous languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Persian, and Turkish.