Legal scholars have only recently begun to address the radical challenges for law and legal theory that follow from Friedrich Nietzsche's pathbreaking work. This collection brings together articles from leading thinkers who consider how Nietzsche's philosophical and rhetorical interventions illuminate the failures of contemporary legal theory. Part One considers the connections between law, political philosophy and Nietzsche's genealogy. Part Two provides a number of competing interpretations of Nietzsche's relevance for legal hermeneutics. Part Three includes articles that chart a course for legal critique that remains true to Nietzsche's radical character. The work of prominent philosophers, including P. Christopher Smith, is joined with the work of leading legal theorists, including Philippe Nonet and leading rhetoricians, including Marianne Constable, to provide complex and sophisticated overview of the manner in which Nietzsche problematizes law and legal theory.

Contents: Series preface; Introduction; Part I Political Philosophy, Genealogy, Law: What is positive law?, Philippe Nonet; Genealogy and jurisprudence: Nietzsche, nihilism and the social scientification of law, Marianne Constable; The relevance of Nietzsche to democratic theory: micropolitics and the affirmation of difference, Nathan Widder; Nietzsche and the Nazis: the impact of National Socialism on the philosophy of Nietzsche, Charles M. Yablon. Part II Legal Hermeneutics: From strife to understanding: pathological argument in Nietzsche and Gadamer, P. Christopher Smith; Responding to Nietzsche: the constructive power of Destruktion, Francis J. Mootz III; Nietzsche's gnosis of law, Frederick M. Dolan; Friedrich Nietzsche, the code of manu and the art of legislation, Roger Berkowitz; African Nietzsche: poetry, philosophy and African legal thinking, Adam Gearey; It's a positivist, it's a pragmatist, it's a codifier! Reflections on Nietzsche and Stendhal, Richard H. Weisberg; Nietzsche in Law's cathedral: beyond reason and postmodernism, John Linarelli. Part III Legal Critique: Law and modernity, Peter Goodrich; We fearless ones: Nietzsche and critical legal studies, Adam Gearey; Agonal communities of taste: law and community in Nietzsche's philosophy of transvaluation, H.W. Siemens; Rationalised violence and legal colonialism: Nietzsche contra Neitzsche, Joseph Pugliese; Specters of Nietzsche: potential futures for the concept of the political in Agamben and Derrida, Adam Thurschwell. Part IV Timely Reflections on the Scholarly Enterprise: 'We scholars', Friedrich Nietzsche (translated by Walter Kaufmann); Name index.

About the Editor: Francis J. Mootz III is William S. Boyd Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA and Peter Goodrich is Professor of Law and is the Director of the Program in Law and Humanities at Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, USA.

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