Postmodern legal thought

Author: Gao Zhong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: Whether it is Hegel's philosophy of law or Montesquieu's theory of the separation of powers, whether it is Rousseau's social contract theory or Pound's social control theory, all shine with the brilliant light of Western legal civilization. The Western legal schools and trends that have continuously emerged in the long course of history are a vivid embodiment of this civilization. The "Western Legal Schools and Trends" series provides a panoramic display of the doctrines, origins, and developments of various Western legal schools and trends in China, offering readers a brand-new reading material for understanding them. —Zhang Wenxian (Vice President of the China Law Society, Secretary of the Party Committee of Jilin University, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Law)
The process of modernization of the world's legal system has both historical diversity and stability. Understanding Western legal schools and trends is highly beneficial for grasping their theoretical essence and core principles. The "Western Legal Schools and Trends" series provides an excellent overview of legal schools and trends as part of Western legal civilization, outlining the clear contours of the wisdom and dialectics of Western law over more than a thousand years. This series helps broaden perspectives, absorb the essence, and promote the modernization of China's legal system. —Gong Wuxiang (President of the Jiangsu High People's Court, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Law)
In the long history of the development of human legal thought, the wisdom of countless legal scholars and the spirit of various legal schools and trends have been integrated. Each school and trend contains profound philosophical insights, serving as different components of human civilization's progress. Where does the wisdom of legal scholars lie, and where are the thought-provoking philosophies? The "Western Legal Schools and Trends" series, with its systematic, concise, and clear writing, and its richly illustrated pages, provides preliminary answers. —He Qinhua (President of East China University of Political Science and Law, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Law)
In the 1970s, postmodernism emerged as the most academically influential in Western academia, and postmodern legal thought is precisely the concentrated expression of postmodernism in the field of law. Postmodern legal thought reflects, deconstructs, and transcends Western modern law. Postmodern legal thought directs its critical and reflective focus directly at the fundamental principles and legal concepts upheld by modern law; it mocks and challenges the principles of certainty, traditional categories, grand narratives, and various insurmountable boundaries and conventions in modern legal discourse, including those in academic research fields; it affirms, explores, and even embraces the paradoxes that may exist in legal research; it advocates for pluralistic perspectives, promoting research methods such as archaeology of knowledge, genealogy, micro-analysis of power, micro-narratives, paradox analysis, ironic questioning, and deconstruction. It attempts to use various new methods and adopt an epistemological approach different from that of modern mainstream law to subvert the metaphysical essence that is inherited in the diverse schools and trends within the field of Western modern law.