Re-reading Foucault: On Law, Power and Rights

Re-reading Foucault: On Law, Power and Rights is the first collection in English fully to address the relevance of Michel Foucault’s thought for law. Foucault is the best known and most cited of the late twentieth-century’s ‘theory’ academics. His work continues to animate a range of different critical work across intellectual disciplines in the arts, humanities and social sciences. There has, however, been relatively little examination of the legal implications and applications of Foucault’s work. This book fills that gap, providing an in-depth analysis of Foucault’s thought as it pertains to a range of different legal themes, such as: the opposition between ‘law’ and ‘the juridical’; the problem of moral and legal judgment; the historical basis of rights; and the political dimensions (and limitations) of contemporary human rights discourse. Including contributions from acknowledged experts on Foucault’s work, as well as pieces by younger scholars, Re-reading Foucault: On Law, Power and Rights will be of considerable interest across a range of disciplines, including law, philosophy, political theory, sociology, social theory and criminology.

Ben Golder is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales. With Peter Fitzpatrick he is the author and editor, respectively, of Foucault’s Law (Routledge, 2009) and Foucault and Law (Ashgate, 2010)