Law and Violence

Christoph Menke is Professor of Philosophy at Goethe University, Frankfurt

'Christoph Menke is the foremost critical theorist of the “self-repugnance” (as immanent self-critique) of judgment, aesthetics, and the law. In this volume, he turns to a literary archive for its more lucid awareness of the law’s paradoxes. Rethinking Benjamin’s Critique of Violence, Menke asks us to imagine the difference of a law executed in reflexive awareness (rather than disavowal) of its own violence. His leading critics explore the extension of his trenchant theses to contemporary forms of transitional justice, politics, literature, subjectivity, decision, and depotentiation.' Penelope Deutscher, Joan and Sarepta Harrison Professor of Philosophy, Northwestern University

• Part I: Lead essay1 Law and violence – Christoph MenkePart II: Responses2 Between law and violence: towards a re-thinking of legal justice in transitional justice contexts – María del Rosario Acosta López3 Law without violence – Daniel Loick 4 Deconstructing the deconstruction of the law: reflections on Menke's ‘Law and violence’ – Alessandro Ferrara5 Law in action: Ian McEwan’s The Children Act and the limits of the legal practices in Menke’s ‘Law and violence’ – Ben Morgan6 Postmodern legal theory as critical theory – Andreas Fischer-Lescano7 Self-reflection – Alexander García DüttmannPart III: Reply8 A reply to my critics – Christoph Menke