The Anxiety of the Jurist

Book excerpt: The contributions in this volume pay homage to Zenon Bańkowski, with a focus on problems concerning law’s normalization and the revitalizing force of anxiety. Ranging from political critique to methodological issues and from the role of human rights in development to the role of parables and analogy in legal reasoning, the contributions themselves are testament to the richness of Bańkowski’s scholarship, as well as to the applicability of his core ideas to a wide range of issues. Divided into five parts, the book focuses on the role and methods of the jurist; conceptions of legality and the experience of living under rules; jurisprudential issues affecting exchange and the market; and the burden and methods of legal judgement. It also includes Bańkowski’s 2011 valedictory lecture and a bibliography of his work. Comprising all original contributions, the contributors represent a balance of established, leading figures and younger, emerging scholars in the field of legal and social theory.