Foucault and Law: Towards a Sociology of Law As Governance

This work introduces Michel Foucault’s ideas on law to both graduate and undergraduate students, making no assumptions of prior reading of Foucault’s work. It offers a brief overview of the significance and implications of Foucault’s corpus of work before providing an exposition of his thought on law. The discussion is organized around a number of themes that run through Foucault’s writings, particularly his tendency to counterpoise law and modernity, viewing law as associated with pre-modern political forms. The book concludes with an exploration of the sociology of governance as applied to law, drawing on the work of Durkheim and Weber as well as on Foucault’s own material.