Overview

This book of essays follows from and adds to the presentations, discussions and debates of the Critical Legal Conference 2010, held in Utrecht at the Department of Legal Theory of the Faculty of Law (Utrecht University). The 2010 conference focused, as a main theme, on exposing the normative abuse of law against the background of 'multiple modernities', i.e. the idea that modernity is not a sing--le encompassing, Western concept but entails different traditions and strands of thought about contemporary society. What ties the essays together is their critique on contem--porary society or an aspect of society, from a legal-theoretical perspective. Critique implies a method of observation, analysis, interpretation and argumentation, representing a point of view on what is wrong with law in contemporary society. The common denominator is the argument that there is something wrong with law. This is how critical legal theory dis--tinguishes itself from mainstream legal theory. What is wrong with law is its actual and potential normative abuse. Social developments demand a critical perspective on law and legal scholarship to lay bare this abuse. These developments relate the financial and economic crisis, the continuing 'humanitarian' wars, the rising intolerance to the other and the perceived threat they pose. Hence, human rights are employed by the state to justify torture; the law on patents and intellectual pro--perty prevent any sense of responsibility for the lack of access to healthcare by the global poor (suffering from aids); trade law exists on the premise of equality of market access, which de facto is a fallacy.

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9786613274663

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