ABSTRACT
Like all theory, jurisprudence is expressed through a number of metaphors and images that are 'loaded' in the sense that they bring conceptual shape, orientation, and often aesthetic and even normative values to the subject matter. This chapter considers some of the metaphorical contours of legal thought and in particular a significant metaphorical contest. It then explores some of the ways in which law is imagined through figurative language. Space and boundaries as metaphors are often imported into the conceptualisation of law as imagined limits that line up with rules, carving law into jurisdictional and behavioural spaces. The boundary or limit is a useful image because it can be applied in various ways: to individual laws, to the territory of a nation-state, to a limited jurisdiction (such as the jurisdiction of an administrative court), and the conceptual edges of an entire legal system.
