Anarchist before the Law

Saul Newman is Professor in Political Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research is in continental and poststructuralist political and social theory, and contemporary radical politics. He is the author of: From Bakunin to Lacan (2001); Power and Politics in Poststructuralist Thought (2005); Unstable Universalities (2007); Politics Most Unusual (2008); The Politics of Postanarchism (2010); and Max Stirner (2011). Massimo La Torre is Professor of Philosophy of Law at the University of Catanzaro, Italy, and Visiting Professor of European law at the University of Tallinn, Estonia.

• PrefaceChapter 1 - Classical anarchism and legal authorityChapter 2 - Anarchism and law: a jurisprudential conundrumChapter 3 - The long arc of anarchy: a source of modernity Chapter 4 - Carl Schmitt and the anarchistsChapter 5 - Autoimmunity and the problem of legal foundationChapter 6 - Still a cold monster? On the dual nature of the stateChapter 7 - On violenceChapter 8 - DisobedienceChapter 9 - Human rightsConclusion - Law without coercion: on the possibilities of an anarchist legal system

The book opens a new page of the philosophical-political debate, deconstructing the traditional antithesis between anarchy and institutions. Interpreted in a radical way, they share a common distance from the sovereign paradigm. As the instituting praxis incorporates an anarchist element, anarchism tends to institute a community free from sovereign commands.