Desmond Manderson – författare

This collection brings together major writers and major works on what Emmanuel Levinas means to law, and injects Levinas' provocative ethics right into the heart of living law, radically changing our understanding of both.

Kangaroo Courts and the Rule of Law -The Legacy of Modernism addresses the legacy of contemporary critiques of language for the concept of the rule of law. Between those who care about the rule of law and those who are interested in contemporary legal theory, there has been a dialogue of the deaf, which cannot continue. Starting from the position that contemporary critiques of linguistic meaning and legal certainty are too important to be dismissed, Desmond Manderson takes up the political and intellectual challenge they pose. Can the rule of law be re-configured in light of the critical turn of the past several years in legal theory, rather than being steadfastly opposed to it? Pursuing a reflection upon the relationship between law and the humanities, the book stages an encounter between the influential theoretical work of Jacques Derrida and MIkhail Bakhtin, and D.H. Lawrence's strange and misunderstood novel Kangaroo (1923). At a critical juncture in our intellectual history - the modernist movement at the end of the first world war - and struggling with the same problems we are puzzling over today, Lawrence articulated complex ideas about the nature of justice and the nature of literature. Using Lawrence to clarify Derrida’s writings on law, as well as using Derrida and Bakhtin to clarify Lawrence’s experience of literature, Manderson makes a robust case for 'law and literature.' With this framework in mind he outlines a 'post-positivist' conception of the rule of law - in which justice is imperfectly possible, rather than perfectly impossible.

Kangaroo Courts and the Rule of Law -The Legacy of Modernism addresses the legacy of contemporary critiques of language for the concept of the rule of law. Between those who care about the rule of law and those who are interested in contemporary legal theory, there has been a dialogue of the deaf, which cannot continue. Starting from the position that contemporary critiques of linguistic meaning and legal certainty are too important to be dismissed, Desmond Manderson takes up the political and intellectual challenge they pose. Can the rule of law be re-configured in light of the critical turn of the past several years in legal theory, rather than being steadfastly opposed to it? Pursuing a reflection upon the relationship between law and the humanities, the book stages an encounter between the influential theoretical work of Jacques Derrida and MIkhail Bakhtin, and D.H. Lawrence's strange and misunderstood novel Kangaroo (1923). At a critical juncture in our intellectual history - the modernist movement at the end of the first world war - and struggling with the same problems we are puzzling over today, Lawrence articulated complex ideas about the nature of justice and the nature of literature. Using Lawrence to clarify Derrida’s writings on law, as well as using Derrida and Bakhtin to clarify Lawrence’s experience of literature, Manderson makes a robust case for 'law and literature.' With this framework in mind he outlines a 'post-positivist' conception of the rule of law - in which justice is imperfectly possible, rather than perfectly impossible.

In this pathbreaking and provocative analysis of the aesthetics of law, the historian, legal theorist, and musician Desmond Manderson argues that by treating a text, legal or otherwise, as if it were merely a sequence of logical propositions, readers miss its formal and symbolic meanings. Creatively using music as a model, he demonstrates that law is not a sterile, rational structure, but a cultural form to be valued and enhanced through rhetoric and metaphors, form, images, and symbols. To further develop this argument, the book is divided into chapters, each of which is based on a different musical form. Law, for Manderson, should strive for neither coherence nor integrity. Rather, it is imperfectly realized, constantly reinterpreted, and always in flux. Songs without Music is written in an original, engaging, and often humorous style, and exhibits a deep knowledge of both law and music. It successfully traverses several disciplines and builds an original and persuasive argument for a legal aesthetic. The book will appeal to a broad readership in law, political theory, literary criticism, and cultural studies.

The visual arts offer refreshing and novel resources through which to understand the representation, power, ideology and critique of law. This vibrantly interdisciplinary book brings the burgeoning field to a new maturity through extended close readings of major works by artists from Pieter Bruegel and Gustav Klimt to Gordon Bennett and Rafael Cauduro. At each point, the author puts these works of art into a complex dance with legal and social history, and with recent developments in legal and art theory. Manderson uses the idea of time and temporality as a focal point through which to explore how the work of art engages with and constitutes law and human lives. In the symmetries and asymmetries caused by the vibrating harmonic resonances of these triple forces - time, law, art - lies a way of not only understanding the world, but also transforming it.

The visual arts offer refreshing and novel resources through which to understand the representation, power, ideology and critique of law. This vibrantly interdisciplinary book brings the burgeoning field to a new maturity through extended close readings of major works by artists from Pieter Bruegel and Gustav Klimt to Gordon Bennett and Rafael Cauduro. At each point, the author puts these works of art into a complex dance with legal and social history, and with recent developments in legal and art theory. Manderson uses the idea of time and temporality as a focal point through which to explore how the work of art engages with and constitutes law and human lives. In the symmetries and asymmetries caused by the vibrating harmonic resonances of these triple forces - time, law, art - lies a way of not only understanding the world, but also transforming it.

This collection brings together major writers and major works on what Emmanuel Levinas means to law, and injects Levinas' provocative ethics right into the heart of living law, radically changing our understanding of both.

What do Margaret Atwood or Gulliver's Travels have to do with Facebook, Tik Tok or COVID-19 and issues of surveillance?Covers a range of topical issues ranging from the security state and the power of tech industries, to COVID-19 and the role of surveillance in the experience of indigenous peoples in post-colonial societiesCompares legal frameworks and offers an overview of surveillance in France, the UK, US, Canada and AustraliaDraws on a range of resources including literary texts, such as Jonathan Raban's Surveillance, Margaret Atwood's Bodily Harm and The Testaments and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's TravelsExamines the key concepts involved in surveillance studies, including surveillance itself, privacy, identity, trust, consent, agency and securityThe growing sophistication of surveillance practices has given rise to concerns and discussions in the public sphere, but has also provided a popular theme in literature, film and the arts. Bringing together contributors across literary studies, law, philosophy, sociology, and politics, this book examines the use, evolution, legitimacy, and implications of surveillance.Drawing on a range of resources including literary texts, chapters explore key issues such as the use and legitimacy of surveillance to address a global health crisis, the role of surveillance in the experience of indigenous peoples in post-colonial societies, how surveillance interacts with gender race, ethnicity, and social class, and the interaction between technology, surveillance, and changing attitudes to expression. It shows how literature contributes innovative ways of thinking about the challenges posed by surveillance, how philosophy and sociology can help to correct biases and law and politics can offer new approaches to the legitimacy, use and implications of surveillance.

The growing sophistication of surveillance practices has given rise to concerns and discussions in the public sphere, but has also provided a popular theme in literature, film and the arts. Bringing together contributors across literary studies, law, philosophy, sociology, and politics, this book examines the use, evolution, legitimacy, and implications of surveillance. Drawing on a range of resources including literary texts, chapters explore key issues such as the use and legitimacy of surveillance to address a global health crisis, the role of surveillance in the experience of indigenous peoples in post-colonial societies, how surveillance interacts with gender race, ethnicity, and social class, and the interaction between technology, surveillance, and changing attitudes to expression. It shows how literature contributes innovative ways of thinking about the challenges posed by surveillance, how philosophy and sociology can help to correct biases and law and politics can offer new approaches to the legitimacy, use and implications of surveillance.

In Law and the Visual, leading legal theorists, art historians, and critics come together to present new work examining the intersection between legal and visual discourses. Proceeding chronologically, the volume offers leading analyses of the juncture between legal and visual culture as witnessed from the fifteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Editor Desmond Manderson provides a contextual introduction that draws out and articulates three central themes: visual representations of the law, visual technologies in the law, and aesthetic critiques of law. A ground breaking contribution to an increasingly vibrant field of inquiry, Law and the Visual will inform the debate on the relationship between legal and visual culture for years to come.