ABSTRACT
The empirical overview of the extent to which contemporary legal systems have been postmodernized provides a context for raising questions about the general nature of postmodern theorizing, and its relevance for law. This chapter examines the extent to which this body of critical work assists in providing the heuristic and evaluative tools necessary to address both the nature of modern law in general as well as the recent changes in legal systems and doctrine surveyed. To assume that law functions simply by its ineffectiveness in the face of the disciplines is both an oversimplification of the broad band of legal rules and ignores the effectiveness of legal institutions. Beyond the confines of total institutions, legal rights, such as those to participate in decisionmaking and to move from one institutional context to another, would also need to be assessed by reference to power.
