The Person and the Law

Baudouin Dupret (1)

1 ISP - Institut des Sciences sociales du Politique

It is the inter-relatedness of the individual, the society and the structural categories of social relations which is at the heart of this book; law is simply the code by which the problems are stated. The question is quite naturally multidimensional. I shall explore three dimensions in this introductory chapter. First, I shall develop the subject of the contingent nature of the individual as a social and philosophical being. I shall then examine such relations as may be established between individual, social and political dynamics. Third, I shall examine the nature of the individual as a subject of law. Finally, I shall examine the interest that one might have in adopting a pragmatic approach to the observation of just how such a vast category of understanding evolves over the course of action, particularly legal action. In attempting to outline these various perspectives, the terms of the problem addressed by this book are stated rather than to attempt a solution.

Mots clés: law; legal theory; person; individual; philosophy; politics; anthropology

Domaines: Sociologie

Baudouin Dupret. The Person and the Law: Contingency, Individuation and the Subject. B. Dupret. Standing Trial: Law and the Person in the Modern Middle East, I.B. Tauris, pp.9-38, 2004. ⟨halshs-00179851⟩