After Law

Abstract

After some brief preparatory notes, I will outline the time I call the "Age of Law" to explain how the making of modernity is related to the politics of progress and contradiction that define this era and its legacies. I next will summarize the dynamics of corruption, complexity and crisis that define the Age of Law and its historical construction of nation and market in material, structural terms. I then will turn to the relationship of this status quo to the emergence of internationalized law in the service of corporate globalization. Finally, to conclude, I will return to the pursuit of justice after law, including the importance of foundational values and legal criticality in social re-construction, and the role of academic activism and rebellious knowledge-production in the pursuit of social justice transformation. In the end, I hope to have provoked new insights and incited new ambitions in your own work.

Keywords: age of law, modernity, dynamics of corruption, historical construction, internationalized law, pursuit of justice after law, corporate globalization, social re-construction

JEL Classification: K39