ABSTRACT

This book is a consideration of the relationship between law and morality in new forms of ethical and political thought emerging in light of challenges to the legal and moral authority of national sovereignty. Notable in this respect is the rise in the last half of the twentieth century of bioethics, an ethical paradigm derived from medical ethics and born in the twentieth century. Bioethics appeals to the idea of a ‘common morality’ based on the universal desire for survival and value of life. An ethics based on life is seen as a natural morality (Cascais 2003) and a form of ethical thinking that can encompass all moral problems (Gert et al. 2006: 4). As a result, the relationship between bioethics and political concepts has yet to be considered. Another notable development that will be explored is a renewed interest in natural law theory, which is an approach to law that defines its authority in terms of universal principles found in nature, not political institutions or social conventions. Both of these are significant developments in cultural contexts where, until recently, universal principles have been regarded with incredulity, and faith in the ability of reason to lead universal maxims and the discovery of valued social goods is lacking (Pavlich 2007). The present work draws on alternative theoretical paradigms, which, in

different ways, denaturalise the idea of life. The ethics of psychoanalysis are drawn upon to elaborate an analytical framework for scrutinising the position of enunciation behind the invocation of the value of life. Theories of biopolitics are then taken up to elaborate an understanding of life as a politically determined concept beyond the good. Three literatures are drawn on in order to undertake this analysis. The first is the ethics of psychoanalysis developed by Jacques Lacan (1992), which will be developed in the first two chapters to provide an alternative ethical framework for looking at morality, specifically notions of goodness. The second is political theory, where concepts of biopolitics and biopower are playing an increasing role in debates on law and morality, largely because they are focused on power at the level of the life and death of legal subjects. The third is selected strands of legal philosophy: natural law theory and legal positivism. It is worth outlining briefly each of these fields in the context of the present analysis.