Time, Temporality and Legal Judgment

The book challenges the correspondence theory of judicial fact construction and provides an account of judicial fact construction through legally produced times- or adjudicative temporalities- that structure legal subject and event formation in legal judgement. It argues that the selection between different adjudicative temporalities is generally indeterminate, influenced by wider social structures, and that the demystification of time as that which structures event and subject formation reveals another way to uncover the politics of legal judgement and its transformative potential.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 160 pages
Publication date: 24 February 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This book presents a groundbreaking challenge to the traditional correspondence theory of judicial fact construction, which posits that legal rules resemble and subsume facts 'out there.' Instead, it offers a novel account of judicial fact construction through legally produced times- or adjudicative temporalities- that shape the formation of legal subjects and events in legal judgment. Drawing on Bergsonian and Gadamerian theories of time, the book delves into how certain adjudicative temporalities can create fully willed and autonomous subjects through 'time-framed legal events,' effectively forming the paradigmatic liberal legal subject. Alternatively, it explores how alternative adjudicative temporalities can structure legal subjects that are situated and constituted by social structures.

The consequences of this novel perspective on legal judgment are far-reaching. Firstly, it emphasizes that judicial fact construction is not solely determined by the legal rules but also by the production of temporalities through adjudication. Secondly, it recognizes that the selection between different adjudicative temporalities is generally indeterminate, influenced by broader social structures. It argues that these social structures, framed as a particular type of past produced by certain adjudicative temporalities, can either be incorporated into the rendering of the legal event or elided.

Thirdly, the book's focus on criminal law highlights the different deployments of adjudicative temporalities that affect responsibility ascription. It suggests that the demystification of time as the structuring force of event and subject formation reveals another avenue for uncovering the politics of legal judgment and its potential for transformative change. Through either its inclusion or elision of social structures in the determination of facts, legal judgment can either reinforce or challenge existing power structures.

This book will be of immense interest to scholars, practitioners, and policymakers engaged in the study of law, justice, and society. It offers a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on the construction of facts in legal judgment, shedding light on the complex interplay between law, time, and social structures. By challenging the traditional understanding of judicial fact construction, this book opens up new avenues for understanding and reforming the legal system.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367517892