Schreber's Law: Jurisprudence and Judgment in Transition - Paperback

by Peter Goodrich (Author)

Daniel Paul Schreber (1842-1911) was a senior German judge and jurist. He formulated a unique juridical theology of private life and developed a critical account of oikonomia, the practice of governance and administration. But his theoretical work was largely ignored due to his mental illness and his desire to be a woman in a time inhospitable to transitions. Now, Schreber's Law looks beyond Judge Schreber's mental health to reappraise his distinguished contribution to legal theory.

Peter Goodrich evaluates Schreber's jurisprudence by analysing the Memoirs and his interpreters in detail, and sets his work in the context of both the neo-Kantian pure science of fin de siècle German jurisprudence and 21st-century legal theory. In this way, Goodrich shows how Schreber's work challenges the legal thought of his era and opens up a potentially vital approach to contemporary jurisprudence.

Author Biography

Peter Goodrich is Professor of Law at Cardozo School of Law, New York and Visiting Professor in the School of Social Science at NYU Abu Dhabi. He was the founding dean of the Department of Law at Birkbeck, University of London, where he was also the Corporation of London Professor of Law. He has written extensively in legal history and theory, law and literature and semiotics and has authored 12 books. He is the executive editor of the journal Law and Literature (Taylor & Francis), and was the founding editor of Law and Critique (Springer). His recent books include Schreber's Law: Jurisprudence and Judgment in Transition (Edinburgh University Press, 2018) and Legal Emblems and the Art of Law (Cambridge University Press, 2013). To this coruscating and lucifugous erudition can be added co-writing and co-producing the award winning documentary Auf Wiedersehen: 'Til we Meet Again (Diskin Films, 2012).