Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities

Repensando a Liberdade no Ius Cosmopoliticum de Kant

by Gilbert Leung

Eduardo Costa Barbosa (trans) in Ricardo Lobo Torres, Ana Paula Barbosa Fohrmann (eds) Estudos De Direito Público E Filosofia Do Direito: Um Diálogo Entre Brasil e Alemanha (Renovar, Brazil, 2011) 131–142.

Illegal Fictions

by Gilbert Leung

in Ben Hutchens (ed), Jean-Luc Nancy: Justice, Legality and World (London & New York, Continuum 2012).

The idea of the legal fiction has a long and controversial history. For some it is anathema to justice and a relic... more The idea of the legal fiction has a long and controversial history. For some it is anathema to justice and a relic from an age of superstition. For others it is quite the contrary. This essay will unfold a story of the legal fiction which, with help of Jean-Luc Nancy, will point to an alternative way of conceiving not only its relation to a variety of other legal phenomena but, perhaps most importantly, the very foundations of legality. The central point may be encapsulated in the following propositions: 1) the legal fiction is our only legal “reality” that is at the same time necessarily illegal and 2) it is these essential characteristics that ensure both the risk and promise of renewal.

A preview of the first part of the collection, which includes Nancy's essay "From the Imperative to Law" can be found here: http://cipg.codemantra.us/UI_TRANSACTIONS/Marketing/UI_Marketing.aspx?ID=WP9781441123787&ISBN=9781441123787&sts=b#3

On Finitude and Sovereignty: A Workshop with Jean-Luc Nancy

by Gilbert Leung

This is, strictly speaking, neither a paper nor a talk. This is a transcription of part of a workshop held in English... more This is, strictly speaking, neither a paper nor a talk. This is a transcription of part of a workshop held in English with Jean-Luc Nancy at Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities as part of the Adieu Derrida series of lectures in May 2005. It is a great example of Jean-Luc Nancy's philosophy at work, the process of thinking through, of posing questions and wondering. Not in solitude, but with others. This particular workshop had a great impact on those who attended and some of the ideas generated have filtered through into their subsequent books and articles.

Please note that in transcribing the workshop I have endeavoured to reproduce as faithfully as possible the free flowing style and nuances of the spoken word. I have made adjustments but only when absolutely necessary. Jean-Luc Nancy expressly bears no responsibility for the text. That burden must lie with me. He has, nonetheless, gracefully consented to its free distribution.

Towards a Radical Cosmopolitanism

by Gilbert Leung

in Costas Douzinas, Illan Wall, and Matthew Stone (eds) "New Critical Legal Thinking: Law and the Political" (Birkbeck Law Press, Forthcoming 30th October 2011) .

Cosmopolitanism as an expression of human unity can be traced back to the noble philosophy of the Ancient Stoics, from... more Cosmopolitanism as an expression of human unity can be traced back to the noble philosophy of the Ancient Stoics, from Cleanthes to Seneca to Cicero. Yet the Stoics did not, contrary to popular perception, have a monopoly over the use of the term. Long before them, Diogenes the Kynic (kyon [gen. kynos] "dog" whence cynic), the founder of the most scorned form of anti-philosophy in Ancient Greece, had already identified himself as "kosmopolitēs". This essay is an original attempt to think through this other use of the word. The aim is not to replicate or monumentalize kynical cosmopolitanism. Instead, I try to conceive a form of 'postkynical' cosmopolitanism through, inter alia, a productive thinking of the aporetic relation between law and freedom. In stark contrast to the conventional Stoic/Kantian cosmopolitanism of global pacification, I eventually arrive at a radical cosmopolitics of world creation or what I simply term 'political cosmogenesis'.

Human Rights, World Citizenship and the Cosmopolitan Question

by Gilbert Leung

Nottingham Law Review Student Supplement (2004) 3–7

This is an early paper that offers a basic critique of modern cosmopolitanism through its overt humanist and covert... more This is an early paper that offers a basic critique of modern cosmopolitanism through its overt humanist and covert imperialist pretensions. It ultimately argues that we should focus on the inherent tensions in cosmopolitanism that invite us to see it not as a solution but as a basic question of legal subjectivity. In one form it asks: Who is the ‘human’ of human rights? In another form: Who is the ‘citizen’ of citizenship?

The Efflorescent Nihilism of Laughter: An Existential Supplement to Satirical Legal Studies

by Gilbert Leung

Journal of Law and Humanitities (2010) vol. 4 no. 2 Law and Humanities 275–289.

‘ … when nothing else from today has a future, our laughter is the one thing that does!’ (F Nietzsche, Beyond Good and... more ‘ … when nothing else from today has a future, our laughter is the one thing that does!’ (F Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, [CUP 2002] 114)

This paper attempts to show how a form of existential laughter might relate to the radical critique of law and, as such, may be seen as a supplement to Peter Goodrich’s ‘Satirical Legal Studies’. The principle thesis that will be defended is the following: To think the essence of laughter is, paradoxically, to think it as without essence, to think it as the burst from nothing. This may seem a rather unproductive nihilism, but it will be argued that the burst from nothing is equally a burst of creation, a quasi-secular sovereign moment that has ethico-political ramifications at the ontological level. Laughter bursts out in surprise and propels being to another place, even or perhaps especially, towards a future.

Jean-Luc Nancy: The First Question of Law

by Gilbert Leung

In progress (Nomikoi Critical Legal Thinkers, Routledge)

This book seeks to engage in a renewed thinking of law through the work of Jean-Luc Nancy, a philosopher who was once... more This book seeks to engage in a renewed thinking of law through the work of Jean-Luc Nancy, a philosopher who was once described by Jacques Derrida as the writer of some of the "immense philosophic works of our time".

Chapters include: 1) The First Question of Law; 2) Force as Sense; 3) Law, Violence, Sovereignty; 4) Natural Law; 5) Human Rights; 6) Law, Justice and the Political.

In addition to an extended analysis of these themes, the book includes an in-depth interview that will provide the reader with a direct insight into Nancy's often startling but always inspiring approach to thinking the ground of law.

A Critical History of Cosmopolitanism

by Gilbert Leung

Law, Culture and the Humanities (2009 ) vol. 5 no. 3 370-390

This article excavates certain hidden and suppressed moments in the ancient and modern history of cosmopolitanism. In... more This article excavates certain hidden and suppressed moments in the ancient and modern history of cosmopolitanism. In contradistinction to mainstream cosmopolitanism, which generally reduces the concept to a liberal politics of global pacification, an essential agonism between cosmos and polis that is further reflected in the aporetic relation between freedom and law will be revealed. Cosmopolitanism is not only a philosophy of perpetual peace, it is also, paradoxically, a call to perpetual provocation.

Otherwise Than Hospitality: A Disputation on the Relation of Ethics to Law and Politics

by Gilbert Leung

With Matthew Stone, Law and Critique (2009) vol. 20  no. 2, 193-206

more http://www.springerlink.com/content/343x456865102334/

At a time of unprecedented migration and social displacement, following a century ravaged by war and hegemonic shift, the question of hospitality presents itself with unparalleled urgency. Taking his cue from Immanuel Kant’s cosmopolitics, Jacques Derrida addressed this question by deliberating on the nature of the political obligation to the other person. Invoking the work of Emmanuel Levinas, this demand is first of all ethical, and unconditional. But Derrida was also acutely aware of the residual violence of the hospitable gesture, which always takes place in a scene of power. The resultant aporias at the heart of hospitality provoked debate between the two authors at the 2007 Critical Legal Conference, and this paper seeks to elucidate and elaborate on this encounter. At stake are the matters of the potential political forms of hospitality, whether it should always be striven for and, ultimately, how one can conceptually reconcile its ethics with its violence.