Law, Crisis and Critique

The edited collection intervenes in a contemporary context in which critical reflection, if it is to remain orientated by the concepts of law, crisis and critique, has itself to reflect upon these concepts and their interrelationship. This type of reflection, as the underlying framework of the book, is both an acknowledgment of this current predicament and one which seeks a commonality of purpose among the chapter contributions without the generation of a potentially restrictive orthodoxy. The purpose is sustained by the interdisciplinary background of the contributions, the range of subject areas which are the subject of critical reflection and the international composition of the contributors. The contemporary context is one in which the international institutional architecture, guided by the associated notions of globalisation and international governance, have effectively declined as the predominant conceptual framework. This has been accompanied by the fragmentation of what had been a nascent anti-globalisation movement with its emphasis upon the fundamentally negative effects of this conceptual framework guiding the international institutional architecture. These changes have been overlain by the profound challenges represented by armed conflict, the financial crisis, the global pandemic and climate change which, in turn, have affected the conceptualisation of crisis. From a single origin relating to a specific domain, and of determinate duration, the perception of crisis has led to the addition of the pre-fixes, poly- and perma-, to the conception of crisis. With these additions, crisis, as polycrisis, indicates a plural origin for crisis – its simultaneous occurrence in a number of domains – and permacrisis, indicates the greater uncertainty or indeterminacy in the duration of crisis. The increased complexity of the phenomenon of crisis is accompanied by a corresponding requirement for critique to adequately grasp, reveal and respond to the harm and injustice of the contemporary context. A central form of social and institutional regulation, which is both affected by, and responds to, crisis and critique, is that of law. Thus, law becomes a form through which to trace the alterations in the concepts of crisis and critique. It is this underlying approach to the constellation of the concepts of law, crisis and critique which then guides the interdisciplinary approach to the critical analysis of the domains of algorithmic capitalism, civil disobedience, constitutionalism, democracy, ecology and ecocide, feminism, geopolitics, human rights, populism and religion.