Emancipation, Democracy and the Modern Critique of Law: Reconsidering Habermas

Description

This book focuses on Jürgen Habermas’ theorising on law, rights and democracy in light of the modern critique of law. The latter tradition, which goes back to Hegel and Marx, has addressed the limitations of rights as vocabulary of emancipation and law as language of autonomy. Since Habermas claims that his reconstruction of private and public autonomy has an emancipatory aim, the author has chosen to discuss it in the context of the modern critique of law. More specifically, the study addresses the need to consider the dialectic of law, in which law is both a condition for emancipation and domination, when discussing what law and rights permit. It will appeal to students and scholars across the fields of political theory, law and legal criticism, as well as sociology and sociology of law. Front Matter ....Pages i-ix Introduction (Mikael Spång)....Pages 1-32 The Dialectic of Law and the Modern Legal Form (Mikael Spång)....Pages 33-63 Colonisation of the Lifeworld and the Dilemma of Welfare State Law (Mikael Spång)....Pages 65-95 The Reconstruction of the System of Rights (Mikael Spång)....Pages 97-122 Conclusions (Mikael Spång)....Pages 123-127 Back Matter ....Pages 129-131