ABSTRACT
An anthropological critique of value is defended, inspired by Michel Foucault and Yan Thomas, which considers the rhetoric of ‘true value’ as a political technology and which locates in legal artifice the prime engine of such technology. The case of financial valuation is considered, with particular attention to the foregrounding of ‘investor protection’ as a leading principle for economic conduct. A critical reflection is offered on ‘Law and Finance’, a doctrine that embeds in institutional measures this particular formulation of value.
