Die Genese der Rechtskritik aus der tragischen Erfahrung

Is the law reducible to violence? Is it nothing but a mere instrument of power? If the answer is affirmative, the legal criticism becomes transcendent and dissolves into a general legal nihilism. In his critique of violence, Benjamin follows this path. This book demonstrates, however, that Benjamin's theory of ancient tragedy provides a different model of legal criticism. The author argues that, from the perspective of Benjamin's theory of tragedy, law appears as a paradox: It is both, power and its rupture; it transcends the direct relations of violence and at the same time secures them. It is the paradoxical nature of law that enables a true critique of law.