Santamaria on Foucault and Modern Law: A Review

Gerardo del Cerro Santamaria has published Foucault and Modern Law: A Review at 26 Foucault Studies 111 (June 2019). Here is the abstract.

Professor Jacopo Martire’s book, A Foucauldian Interpretation of Modern Law. From Sovereignty to Normalisation and Beyond deserves careful attention. The book represents the author’s project of making Foucault’s thought compatible with modern legal theory. Dr. Martire (from the University of Bristol) tries to put together and reconcile two seemingly incompatible approaches to understanding the workings of modern society. Jürgen Habermas’s forceful critique of Foucault still looms large. Other traditional interpretations of Foucault’s work have emphasized “the expulsion thesis,” that is, the fact that Foucault, relying too much on discipline and governmentality, effectively expelled law from the locus of power and excessively downplayed the role of law in our times.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.