ABSTRACT
The particular kind of authority accorded judges and the decisions of courts in the common law tradition is remarkable. Certain speech acts are clothed with the authority of the law. This chapter looks at the kind of authority the law has in our cultures, and where this authority comes from. It is concerned with lies in gaining some understanding of the extent, if any, to which authority and differance are capable of coexisting. Within contemporary Western cultures, the ideas of authority and legality are linked in a number of very particular ways. Abstraction, the power of the text, the effacement of individual voices and the substitution of plaintiffs and defendants, accuseds and their victims, are central to law's singular authority. The authority of the lawyers and their translations begin the transition from ordinary story to authoritative legal narrative. To pronounce judgment is to command, to compel others to act in particular ways and to have the authority to do so.
