Schreber's Law - (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and the Humanities) by Peter Goodrich (Paperback)

About the Book

Peter Goodrich looks beyond Judge Schreber's mental health to evaluate his jurisprudential theory. Goodrich analyses Schreber's Memoirs, interpreters and intellectual context to show how Schreber challenges the legal thought of his era and opens up a potentially vital approach to contemporary jurisprudence.

Book Synopsis

Reappraises - and reinstates - the jurisprudence of Judge Schreber, looking beyond mental health to their distinguished contribution to legal theory

• The first legal analysis of the Memoirs of Judge Schreber
• An exemplary case study of the intersection of psychoanalysis and jurisprudence
• A novel account of the pathology in law and the originality of a highly symptomatic juridical theology
• Reinstates and emplaces Schreber's jurisprudence in a modern context of legal philosophy

Daniel Paul Schreber (1842-1911) was a senior German judge and jurist who formulated a unique juridical theology of private life and developed a critical account of oikonomia, the practice of governance and administration. But their theoretical work was largely ignored due to their mental illness and desire to be a woman in a time inhospitable to transitions. Now, Schreber's Law looks beyond Judge Schreber's mental health to reappraise their distinguished contribution to legal theory.

About the Author

Peter Goodrich is Professor of Law at Cardozo School of Law, New York and Visiting Professor in the School of Social Science at NYU Abu Dhabi. He was the founding dean of the Department of Law at Birkbeck, University of London, where he was also the Corporation of London Professor of Law. He has written extensively in legal history and theory, law and literature and semiotics and has authored 12 books. He is the executive editor of the journal Law and Literature (Taylor & Francis), and was the founding editor of Law and Critique (Springer). His recent books include Schreber's Law: Jurisprudence and Judgment in Transition (Edinburgh University Press, 2018) and Legal Emblems and the Art of Law (Cambridge University Press, 2013). To this coruscating and lucifugous erudition can be added co-writing and co-producing the award winning documentary Auf Wiedersehen: 'Til we Meet Again (Diskin Films, 2012).