Sociology

Principles, Passions, and the Paradox of Modern Law: A Comment on Bybee

Document Type

Article

Abstract

In All Judges Are Political-Except When They Are Not: Acceptable Hypocrisies and the Rule of Law (), Keith Bybee considers the hypocrisy of modern law-that is, the widespread view that judges are both principled and partisan-by drawing an analogy with courtesy. Both law and courtesy contain and manage the diverse and potentially divisive interests that would, were they not contained, disrupt social life. In this essay I extend this argument by considering whether the relationship between law and courtesy is more than merely analogical. I suggest that both systems are aspects of larger historical developments out of which emerged the modern subject and the modern state, creating a social world made up of apparently bounded individuals and institutions. As such, law and courtesy do more than conceal and contain interests and subjectivity; they produce the unruly, partisan subjects they are designed to manage. © 2013 American Bar Foundation.

Publication Title

Law and Social Inquiry

Publication Date

12-2013

Volume

38

Issue

1

First Page

196

Last Page

205

ISSN

0897-6546

DOI

10.1111/lsi.12003

Keywords

courts, legal decision, justice

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