The Law Is a White Dog - How Legal Rituals Make and Unmake Persons

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Law's impact on identity, personhood, and marginality.

"The Law Is a White Dog" invites you to reflect deeply on the intersection of law and human (as well as non-human) identity. Colin Dayan expertly delves into how legal definitions shape our reality and influence societal norms. This book is particularly resonant for those intrigued by the philosophical and practical consequences of legal frameworks on civil liberties and personhood. It's a thoughtful read if you're interested in the hidden mechanisms through which law can both protect and harm individuals and groups.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.

The Law Is a White Dog - How Legal Rituals Make and Unmake Persons

Regular price $11.90
Unit price
per
ISBN: 9780691157870
Authors: Colin Dayan
Date of Publication: 2013-03-03
Format: Paperback
Related Collections: History, Law
Related Topics: American History, Social Justice, War
Goodreads rating: 4.07
(rated by 88 readers)

Description

A fascinating account of how the law determines or dismantles identity and personhood. Abused dogs, prisoners tortured in Guantánamo and supermax facilities, or slaves killed by the state—all are deprived of personhood through legal acts. Such deprivations have recurred throughout history, and the law sustains these terrors and banishments even as it upholds the civil order. Examining such troubling cases, The Law Is a White Dog tackles key societal questions: How does the law construct our identities? How do its rules and sanctions make or unmake persons? And how do the supposedly rational claims of the law define marginal entities, both natural and supernatural, including ghosts, dogs, slaves, terrorist suspects, and felons? Reading the language, allusions, and symbols of legal discourse, and bridging distinctions between the human and nonhuman, Colin Dayan looks at how the law disfigures individuals and animals, and how slavery, punishment, and torture create unforeseen effects in our daily lives. Moving seamlessly across genres and disciplines, Dayan considers legal practices and spiritual beliefs from medieval England, the North American colonies, and the Caribbean that have survived in our legal discourse, and she explores the civil deaths of felons and slaves through lawful repression. Tracing the legacy of slavery in the United States in the structures of the contemporary American prison system and in the administrative detention of ghostly
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Law's impact on identity, personhood, and marginality.

"The Law Is a White Dog" invites you to reflect deeply on the intersection of law and human (as well as non-human) identity. Colin Dayan expertly delves into how legal definitions shape our reality and influence societal norms. This book is particularly resonant for those intrigued by the philosophical and practical consequences of legal frameworks on civil liberties and personhood. It's a thoughtful read if you're interested in the hidden mechanisms through which law can both protect and harm individuals and groups.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.