Accusation

George Pavlich holds a Canada Research Chair in Social Theory, Culture, and Law and is a professor of law and sociology at the University of Alberta. His books include Justice Fragmented: Mediating Community Disputes under Postmodern Conditions; Critique and Radical Discourses on Crime; Governing Paradoxes of Restorative Justice; and Law and Society Redefined. He is a co-editor of Sociology for the Asking; Questioning Sociology; After Sovereignty; Governance and Regulation in Social Life; and Rethinking Law, Society, and Governance: Foucault's Bequest.Matthew P. Unger is an assistant professor in sociology and anthropology at Concordia University. His forthcoming monograph, Sound, Symbol, Sociality, uses the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur to understand the intersection of the social, juridical, and political implications within aesthetic judgment.Contributors: Mark Antaki, Jennifer L. Culbert, James Martel, Renisa Mawani, Keally McBride

• Introduction: Framing Criminal Accusation / George Pavlich and Matthew P. UngerPart 1: Framing Accusation – Logic, Ritual, and Grammar1 Apparatuses of Criminal Accusation / George Pavlich2 Declining Accusation / Mark AntakiPart 2: Genealogies, Colonial Legalities, and Criminal Accusations3 Criminal Accusation as Colonial Rule: The Case of Gurdit Singh (1859–1954) / Renisa Mawani4 Codification and the Colonies: Who's Accusing Whom? / Keally McBridePart 3: Criminal Accusation as Discourse – Subjectivization, Truth, Ethics5 Guilty Without Accusation: Legal Passions and the Misinterpellation of Subjects in Althusser and Kafka / James Martel6 Accusation in the Absence of Crisis: The Banality of Evil, Responsibility, and the Tragedy of Adjudication / Jennifer L. Culbert7 The Forgetfulness of Accusation / Matthew P. Unger Index

With numerous challenges plaguing the modern criminal justice system, it is important to understand where these challenges originate. Accusation provides a philosophical and ideological understanding of the role of accusation in the origin and structuring of modern systems that would be of interest to a variety of criminal justice scholars. Through this deeper understanding, Accusation invites the development of a new approach to criminal justice and the reframing of accusation to address the way subjects enter and interact with these modern systems.- Meagan Ward (Saskatchewan Law Review) This essay collection from UBC Press, with its clever, simple cover of a large red A, asks us to consider what accusation really means, and how it can be used as a weapon.- Amy Kaufman, Head Law Librarian, Queen's University (Canadian Law Library Review)