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Rethinking Juridical Power

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Rethinking Juridical Power September 8, 2014 Seminar with François Ewald COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY CRITICAL THOUGHT FALL 2014 SEMINAR POWER, KNOWLEDGE, SUBJECTIVITY, TRUTH: RETHINKING JURIDICAL POWER PROFESSORS FRANÇOIS EWALD & BERNARD E. HARCOURT MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3-7, 2014 12:00 TO 1:20 PM SEMINAR DESCRIPTION Juridical power, jurisdiction, norms and legality, legal institutions—these are, paradoxically, both everywhere and nowhere in the work of Michel Foucault. Many scholars have gone so far as to say that Foucault had no theory of law and legal institutions. Yet legal practices and institutions appear pervasively throughout practically all of the different facets of his work. Another paradox: Traditionally, commentators who have studied juridical power in Foucault’s work have explored the topic predominantly through the lens of power, or more exactly, relations of power. But it is becoming increasingly clear—especially with the most recent publication of his earliest lectures at the Collège de France—that law and jurisdiction should also be studied in relationship to the larger questions of truth and veridiction. This seminar will explore both puzzles and the consequences of this change in perspective from power/knowledge to veridiction—or toward the integrated notion of veridiction and juridiction at the heart, for instance, of a book such as Foucault’s Wrong-Doing, Truth- Telling: The Function of Avowal in Justice. The seminar will proceed by examining a number of different facets of Foucault’s writings as they relate to the question of norms, juridical power, judicial institutions, and juridiction. The purpose of this intensive week-long seminar will be to rethink the question of juridical power, normalization, truth, and law with and after Foucault. 1 September 8, 2014 Seminar with François Ewald NOTICE This special seminar is open to graduate students in the arts, sciences, and law at Columbia University at the consent of the instructors and will be capped at 12 students. The seminar will meet five times during the week of November 3rd through November 7th, 2014. The seminar cannot be taken for credit, only for intellectual growth. If you would like to attend, you will be expected to attend all five meetings of the seminar. If you would like to participate, please send a paragraph to Claire Merrill at [email protected]. Please explain your interest, your background, and whether you will be able to attend all five seminars. We will do our best to have all the readings in English. The readings will be ordered by their importance to the discussion at the seminars. By way of background, it may be helpful to read Foucault’s two main juridical works: his Louvain lectures from 1981, Wrong-Doing, Truth-Telling: The Function of Avowal in Justice; and his 1973 Rio lectures, “Truth and Juridical Form,” in Power: Collected Works, Volume III. In addition, throughout, we will also be referencing secondary materials, primarily found in Alan Hunt and Gary Wickham’s Foucault and Law: Towards a Sociology of Law as Governance (Pluto 1994) and the collection of essays by Ben Golder and Peter Fitzpatrick titled Foucault and Law (Ashgate, 2010). TENTATIVE SCHEDULE I. INTERVENTIONS: THE VALUES AND MOTIVES MONDAY NOV. 3, 2014 The first seminar will explore the range of interventions that Foucault made—most often, or predominantly, in political and legal disputes within the penal context. Why did Foucault get interested in militancy regarding prisons, asylums, political detainees, and juridical power? On the basis of what values, interests or motives? READINGS: M. Foucault. 1961 Preface to the History of Madness (Routledge 2006), pp. xxvii- xxxvi [Histoire de la folie, D&E no. 159] M. Foucault, “Useless to Revolt,” pages 449-453 in The Essential Works of Michel Foucault, 1954-1984, Vol III: Power, ed. Paul Rabinow (New York: The New Press, 2000) [“Inutile de se soulever,” D&E no. 248 and 269] 2 September 8, 2014 Seminar with François Ewald M. Foucault, “Lives of Infamous Men,” pages 157-175 in Power (Volume III) [“La Vie des hommes infâmes,” Dits & Écrits, no. 198]. Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault, The Chomsky-Foucault debate : On human nature (The New Press, London, 2006, pp. 1-67) [Entretien avec Noam Chomsky, in D&E n. 132] M. Foucault, “Open Letter to Medhi Bazargan,” p. 439-442 in Power (Volume III) [Lettre à Mehdi Bazargan, D&E n. 265]. Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault. 1972. “Intellectuals and Power” in Language, Counter-Memory, Practice (Cornell University Press, 1977, pp.205-217) [Translation of « Les intellectuels et le pouvoir » (entretien avec G. Deleuze, 4 mars 1972, L’Arc, n° 49 : Gilles Deleuze, 2e trimestre 1972, p. 3-10), in M. Foucault, Dits & Écrits, II, n° 106, p. 307]. Michel Foucault. 1972. “On Popular Justice: A Discussion with Maoists” in Power/Knowledge (Chapter 1: pp.1-36) [Translation of « Sur la justice populaire : Débat avec les maos », Les Temps modernes 310 bis ; Nouveau Fascisme, Nouvelle Démocratie, juin 1972, p. 335-366 ; in M. Foucault, Dits & Écrits, II, n° 108, p. 340- 369]. M. Foucault, « An aesthetic of existence » in Politics, Philosophy, Culture: Interviews and Other Writings, 1977-1984, ed. Lawrence D. Kritzman, 1988, Chap 3) [D&E, 184, 192, 281, 357] FURTHER OPTIONAL READINGS : 1. Klaus Croissant, DE, 210, 211, 214 ; 232 (cf also translation : « Letter to Certain Leaders of the Left » in Power, pp. 423-426) 2. “Rendre des comptes,” D&E no. 112 and 113. 3. Le Désordre des familles (Lafarge & Foucault) 4. Le droit des gouvernés, D&E no. 355 5. Le droit de savoir, l’enquête, D&E, 86, 91 ,93 6. L’intolérable, D&E, 94, 114 (« Pompidou’s Two Deaths », Power, volume 3 (edited by James D. Faubion), pp. 418-422) 7. Libérer la sexualité, D&E, 200, 230 8. L’asile illimité, D&E, 202 9. Totalitarisme vs sécurité, D&E, 213 10. Le Goulag, DE, 218 (cf. also translation : « Powers and strategies » in Power/Knowledge) 11. Se débarrasser du marxisme, D&E, 235 12. Sexualité et politique, des droits sexuels, D&E, 138, 152, 3 September 8, 2014 Seminar with François Ewald 13. Exigence de lucidité, D&E, 256 14. Sexualité et vérité, répression, D&E, 190 15. Law and Order, D&E, 152 16. Rendre visible les mécanismes, D&E,160 17. Aller à Madrid, D&E, 158 18. La grande colère des faits, D&E, 204 19. Illégalisme et art de punir, D&E, 175 20. Une mort inacceptable, D&E, 166 21. Effet anesthésiant, D&E, 278, 281 22. L’expérience à fond, D&E, 281 23. La curiosité, D&E, 108 24. Tout repenser, D&E, 298, 300, 301, 303 25. Loi vs culture, D&E, 318 26. Pologne, D&E, 319, 320, 321, 334 27. Autorégulation (mirage), D&E, 325 28. Le travail, D&E, 328, 324 29. M. Foucault, Le manifeste du GIP in Philippe Artières, ed. 2001. Le groupe d’information sur les prisons , GIP. L. Quero (excerpts) 30. Audrey Kiéfer, Michel Foucault : Le GIP, l’histoire et l’action (dissertation) II. JUSTICE, JUDICIAL INSTITUTIONS, AND JURIDICAL POWER TUESDAY NOV. 4, 2014 This second seminar will explore the notion of « illégalismes » and how juridical power becomes the means to negotiate and manage these “illegalisms.” This presents the problem of judging, of how difficult it is to judge, and the need for expertise and other third parties to resolve the tensions of judging. This seminar will focus on the texts where Foucault explores penal law—or what we tend to call criminal law and sentencing in the United States. READINGS: M. Foucault. 1972. « Course summary » of Théories et Institutions pénales, Lectures at the Collège de France, 1971-1972 in The Essential Works of Michel Foucault, 1954-1984, vol 1: Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth ed. Paul Rabinow (New York: The New Press, 1997), pp. 17-22. M. Foucault. 1973. « Course summary » La Société punitive, Lectures at the Collège de France, 1972-1973 in Volume 1 of Paul Rabinow’s Essential Works (Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth), pp. 23-39. 4 September 8, 2014 Seminar with François Ewald M. Foucault. 1975. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Part IV, Chapters 1 and 2 M. Foucault. 1978-79, Birth of Biopolitics, Lesson of March 21, 1979 M. Foucault, “The anxiety of judging,” in Foucault Live: Collected Interviews, 1961-1984 (New York: Semiotext, 1996), pp. 66-84; “L’angoisse de juger, D&E no. 205 ADDITIONAL OPTIONAL READINGS: 1. Pouvoir, partage, exclusion, D&E, 197 2. Interdit/internement (loi de 1838), Le Pouvoir psy, 96 sq 3. Monstruosité/anomalie, Les Anormaux, p.52 4. L’économie du pouvoir de punition, Les Anormaux, p.76 5. Monstruosité et dangerosité, D&E, 220 ('About the Concept of “Dangerous Individual” in Nineteenth-Century Legal Psychiatry', in Power, vol. 3, p. 186), 228 6. Le grand enfermement, D&E, 105 7. Prison/punition, D&E, 125 8. Illégalismes, D&E, 125, 152 (« An Interview with Michel Foucault » in History of the Present, no.1, Feb. 1985) 9. Répression, D&E, 160, 177 10. La sagesse judiciaire, D&E, 240 11. Manières de justice, D&E, 260 12. Dangers, D&E, 270 13. Les deux types de criminels (le surpartage), D&E, 275 14. Le vrai sexe, D&E, 287 15. Le sexualité et la loi, D&E, 349 16. Punir, D&E, 346 (''What calls for punishment?'' Foucault live, p. 279), 353 III. FROM THE REGIME OF LAW TO THE REGIME OF NORMS WEDNESDAY NOV. 5, 2014 In this seminar, we will explore the shift from law to norms. We will analyze the notion of normalization. We will focus in detail on Foucault’s writings and thinking on the topic of public law, constitutional law, and the relationship between common law and civil law traditions of the Continent.
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