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
Repository Citation
Ewick, Patricia, "Principles, Passions, and the Paradox of Modern Law: A Comment on Bybee" (2013). Sociology. 46.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_sociology/46