Description:
The Image of Law is the first book to examine law through the thought of twentieth-century French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Lefebvre challenges the truism that judges must apply and not create law. In a plain and lucid style, he activates Deleuze's key themes--his critique of dogmatic thought, theory of time, and concept of the encounter--within the context of adjudication in order to claim that judgment has an inherent, and not an accidental or willful, creativity. The book begins with a critique of the neo-Kantian tradition in legal theory (Hart, Dworkin, and Habermas) and proceeds to draw on Bergson's theory of perception and memory and Spinoza's conception of ethics in order to frame creativity as a necessary feature of judgment.
Review Quotes: "I recommend to all those interested in the ongoing debates between so-called 'activist' and diehard 'conservatives' in matters of jurisprudence to read The Image of Law. . . The book must also be read by all those who seek to better understand Deleuze's interest in jurisprudence-- especially by those who look for an alternative to de Sutter's "radical jurisprudence."--Constantin V. Boundas "Symposium"