Law in the Risk Society

More than 30 years have passed since Ulrich Beck published Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. In it, he argued that contemporary Western societies are increasingly preoccupied by, and organised around, considerations of risk. Beck's work had a transformative effect on social theory, yet its impact on law and legal scholarship remains largely unexplored. This collection of essays, collated shortly after Beck's death in 2015, explores and reconsiders the legal foundations, concepts and methodologies of the "modern project" in light of risk society theory.

In this volume, academics and lawyers from around the world engage in one of the first comprehensive interrogations of the impact of risk society theory on law and legal scholarship. The authors critically examine topics such as law and (ir)responsibility, reflexive modernisation, and liability, responsibility and accountability through the prism of risk society theory. This collection aims to explore the capacity of law and legal processes to meet the challenges of modernity and adapt to unfamiliar and changing social paradigms. This collection will interest socio-legal scholars, practitioners and students confronted with the novel dilemmas of contemporary society.