Christoph Menke is a third-generation Frankfurt School theorist, and widely acknowledged as one of the most interesting philosophers in Germany today. His lead essay focuses on the fundamental question for legal and political philosophy: the relationship between law and violence. The first part of the essay shows why and in what precise sense the law is irreducibly violent; the second part establishes the possibility of the law becoming self-reflectively aware of its own violence. The volume contains responses by María del Rosario Acosta López, Daniel Loick, Alessandro Ferrara, Ben Morgan, Andreas Fischer-Lescano and Alexander García Düttmann. It concludes with Menke’s reply to his critics.
Table of Content
Part I: Lead essay
1 Law and violence – Christoph Menke
Part II: Responses
2 Between law and violence: towards a re-thinking of legal justice in transitional justice contexts –
María del Rosario Acosta López
3 Law without violence – Daniel Loick
4 Deconstructing the deconstruction of the law: reflections on Menke’s ‘Law and violence’ – Alessandro Ferrara
5 Law in action: Ian Mc Ewan’s The Children Act and the limits of the legal practices in Menke’s ‘Law and violence’ – Ben Morgan
6 Postmodern legal theory as critical theory – Andreas Fischer-Lescano
7 Self-reflection – Alexander García Düttmann
Part III: Reply
8 A reply to my critics – Christoph Menke
About the author
Christoph Menke is Professor of Philosophy at Goethe University, Frankfurt