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Legal Materiality: Genealogies, Working Definition, Critiques

Kang, Hyo Yoon (2019) Legal Materiality: Genealogies, Working Definition, Critiques. In: Birkbeck Law Research Series, 11 Dec 2019, London. (Unpublished) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:79731)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
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Abstract

In the last ten years or so, the notions of matter and materiality have gained more visibility in legal scholarship. These are distinct from approaches informed by historical materialism, and have borrowed from the diverse body of works loosely labelled as 'new materialisms'. I critique some of the legal scholarship's 'application' of new materialist works arguing that they result in flattening the explanatory field: first, they are not attuned to the concrete forms and compositions of legality and second, they tend to simplify and take for granted the complex histories of things, objects or materials. I ask what materiality could mean specifically in relation to 'legal' and propose a working definition that could further a differentiated study of legalities: as a quality in which certain physical and intangible things and techniques become enlisted and come to matter as legal matters of concern. I illustrate the use of such a perspective with the example of the making of 'climate justice'. Lastly, I think about the critiques of such a legal materialist focus, e.g. how does this approach address the 'bigger' concepts (capital, justice, bio/power); is this too or not enough 'materialist'; and does this not rarefy and transcendentalise 'law'?

Item Type: Conference or workshop item (Lecture)
Subjects: K Law > K Law (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: Hyo Yoon Kang
Date Deposited: 23 Jan 2020 17:10 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Feb 2021 14:11 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/79731 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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