Abstract

Understanding the relationship of law and violence is one of the most important tasks for a postmodern critical legal theory. In his recent book Recht und Gewalt Christoph Menke explores the thesis that violence is not something external to law but an essential part of its constitution. While his concise analysis reveals the fundamental conflict of autonomy and societal responsivity of law, I suggest that we have to radicalize his concept in three ways. First, I propose to reconsider the belief that law requires a polity . Second, I will argue that reflexivity of law needs to be conceived of as a process of fundamental democratization of law . Third, I propose that we not only need to depotentiate and displace the law, but that we have to transcend the law . For only transcending the law enables us to appeal to the utopian notion of a justice to come