The Image of Law: Deleuze, Bergson, Spinoza(Cultural Memory in the Present)

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.

Table of Contents:
Contents Preface xxx Abbreviations xxx Part 1 The Dogmatic Image of Law 1 The Judge as Schema: Hart 000 How Does Law Work? Hart's Critique of Austin 000 Subsumption in the Critique of Pure Reason 000 Schematism and Choice in Adjudication 000 2 Reflective Judgment and the Law with Organs: Dworkin 000 The Principle of Principle 000 Purposive Interpretation 000 Elegantia Juris: Integrity and the Lawfulness of the Contingent 000 Natural Purposes: The Law with Organs 000 3 Communication, Judgment, Retrospection: Habermas 000 Habermas: Communicative Kantian 000 A Deleuzian Reply 000 Reply: Application Discourses 000 Part 2 The Image of Law: Bergson and Time 000 4 Deleuze and the Critique of Law 000 Jurisprudence v. Law 000 Critique of Dogmatism in Law and Judgment 000 The Transcendental Encounter (Transcendental Empiricism) 000 Critique of Communication 000 Critique of Human Rights 000 5 The Time of Law I: Evolution in Holmes and Bergson 000 Bergson: Time as Invention (Internal Difference and Differentiation) 000 Holmes: Evolution and the Time of Law 000 All Is Given: The Possible in Dworkin and Habermas 000 6 The Time of Law II: Bergson, Perception, and Memory 000 Pure Perception: Image and the Case as Image 000 The Pure Past and the Four Paradoxes of Time 000 Two Weak Points of Legal Pragmatism 000 7 The Time of Law III: Judgment sub specie durationis 000 The Pure Past of the Law and the Law without Organs 000 Actualizing the Pure Past of Law 000 Inattentive Judgment 000 Attentive Judgment 000 Griswold and Attentive Judgment 000 Part 3 Spinoza and Practice 8 Three Spinozist Themes in a Deleuzian Jurisprudence Spinoza's Physics in Deleuze's Philosophy of the Concept 000 Delgamuukw I: Creation of a Legal Concept (Aboriginal Title) 000 Duration in Spinoza 000 Delgamuukw II: The Creation of Problems as the Power of Adjudication 000 Immanence and Expression 000 Summation: The Image of Law 000 Notes Cases Cited Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Alexandre Lefebvre is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Law, McGill University

Review :
"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 "Lefebvre's plain writing style impressively clarifies philosophical concepts without simplifying them, and his reading of Deleuze's Bergsonism merits attention even if the reader has no interest in a Deleuzian theory of adjudication." - Simon Scott, Theory & Event "Lefebvre's work represents an important shift in contemporary critical legal theory insofar as it answers the need for theory to address internally the categories and schemata of practical reason and judicial rationality... it manages to contribute something quite new to the field: a theory of judgment based on Bergsonian memory and perception. At the same time, it avoids the pitfalls of positivism and, arguably, mechanism, while providing a glimpse of the ontological realm of virtuality subtending the actual operations of the legal system. More, its Deleuzian critique of Hart, Dworkin, and Habermas is bound to be useful for future studies. Most broadly, its transposition of rich ontological theory into legal theory opens new vistas for the latter, fostering the creation of new encounters, problems, and concepts in law." - Kyle McGee, Law and Literature "The Image of the Law is an outstanding book that outlines an innovative theory of creativity in judgment and adjudication. Against the grain of much secondary literature on Deleuze, Lefebvre convincingly demonstrates the value of a 'sober and more mundane' Deleuze for the analysis of existing social and political institutions." - Paul Patton, University of New South Wales "Lefebvre carries Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze to the questions of law and judgment. All three profit from the encounter. Showing us how juridical judgment secretes an incorrigible element of creativity, he also explores the judicial sensibility needed to negotiate the link between them. The result is a lucid and timely study." - William E. Connolly, Johns Hopkins University