The Anarchist before the Law: Law without Authority

Explores the critical encounter between anarchism and law.

• Explores the critical encounter between anarchism and legal philosophy
• Develops an original anarchist theory of law without authority and coercion
• Shows how anarchism can cast fresh light on questions of jurisprudence, state sovereignty, political obligation, legal violence, civil disobedience and human rights
• Draws on continental and analytical approaches to legal theory

When might an anarchist need a good lawyer? Why do radical activists committed to revolutionary change often have to work within the limits of the law? Can a judge also be an anarchist?

This book is an exploration of a paradoxical, yet necessary, encounter between anarchism and the law. Anarchism offers the most radical critique of the principle of legal authority and, as such, poses essential questions that legal philosophy must respond to regarding political obligation and the legitimacy of coercion. At a time when the law is in a state of crisis, it becomes crucial to interrogate its founding principles and ethical limits.

Through an exploration of the anarchist tradition, and engaging with contemporary continental and analytical approaches to questions of jurisprudence, state sovereignty, violence, civil disobedience and human rights, this book develops an original anarchist theory of legal institutionalism and a concept of law without authority and coercion.