Foucault and Law

Towards a Sociology of Law As Governance

Author: Alan Hunt and Gary Wickham Series: Law and Social Theory

The first work to introduce Foucault's ideas on law

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Summary

The first work to introduce Foucault's ideas on law

Description

This work introduces Michel Foucault's ideas on law to both graduate and undergraduate students, making no assumptions of prior reading of Foucault's work. It offers a brief overview of the significance and implications of Foucault's corpus of work before providing an exposition of his thought on law. The discussion is organized around a number of themes that run through Foucault's writings, particularly his tendency to counterpoise law and modernity, viewing law as associated with pre-modern political forms. The book concludes with an exploration of the sociology of governance as applied to law, drawing on the work of Durkheim and Weber as well as on Foucault's own material.

Critic Reviews

“'An inspirational work that will change the way we think about the legal order.' Professor Pat O'Malley, La Trobe University 'This lively and lucid book will do much to show the importance of viewing law as an aspect of governmentality.' --Professor David Garland, University of Edinburgh”

'An inspirational work that will change the way we think about the legal order' -- Professor Pat O'Malley, La Trobe University

About the Author

Professor Alan Hunt holds Chairs in Law and in Sociology at Carleton University, Ottawa and has published extensively on the critical legal studies movement.Gary Wickham is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia and has written on numerous aspects of social theory and the politics of law.

More on this Book

When he died in 1984, Michel Foucault was regarded as one of the most profoundly influential philosophers of his day. Although the law itself never formed a central focus for Foucault, many of the principal themes in his writings are concerned with issues of governance and power that are of direct relevance to the study of law. And yet, until now, Foucault's work has attracted only fleeting attention from the legal academy. Foucault and Law corrects this oversight. Opening with a lucid, critical and unpretentious account of Foucault's work, Hunt and Wickham map out a terrain of methodological and theoretical principals, providing the groundwork for a new sociology of law as governance.