ポストモダンの法と社会

抄録

It is a thorougoing scepticism which characterizes the contemporary legal theory. Being distinct from the previous scepticism, legal realism, which tells only the subjective nature of the interpretation, the contemporary scepticism doubts the vary existence of the law as being there to be interpreted. The law is nothing but a mirage created by the performative speech acts in which the people say "this is the law" to each other.
This divides the internal and external point of view in that the former is the one to participate this language game and the latter to observe this game. The interpretive community consists of the people who share the mirage of the law's concrete existence. To preserve the integrity of this community and hence to continue the language game, it privileges the objectivity in law and marginalizes the scepticism. The strategy of legal scepticism is to de-center this dominant discourse and to reclaim the possibility of "the-law-could-be-otherwise".
The other aspect of the contemporary scepticism is to doubt the very notion of the universality which inheres in the law. Foucault's indictment of the complicity of power in an ostensibly neutral discourse and Derrida's deconstructive reading of the text to reveal the effacement of the other are the examples. This gives us a fresh insight to understand the oppression waged against the minorities through the law. We incorporate this contemporary scepticism into our vision of the postmodern community as being more attuned to the concrete other.