Open AccessThe Justice of Others
Author(s) -
Patricia Mindus
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
etikk i praksis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1890-4009
pISSN - 1890-3991
DOI - 10.5324/eip.v14i2.3830
Subject(s) - arbitrariness , principle of legality , politics , agency (philosophy) , sociology , law , law and economics , dimension (graph theory) , face (sociological concept) , power (physics) , economic justice , political science , epistemology , social science , philosophy , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics
The special issue covers both fronts by presenting a conceptual analysis of arbitrary law-making that sets out to typify its various meanings, along an empirical account of its actual functioning in legal and political practice. As arbitrariness becomes a pressing concern for lawyers, politicians and scholars attempting to grasp the discretionary powers of judicial and administrative authorities vis-a-vis legal subjects, its social impact as well as its political consequences must be taken into consideration in order to fully comprehend how central arbitrariness has become for a philosophical and a sociological account of law-making. Migration policy is precisely where arbitrariness vividly shows its face, and where its various forms unleash their most revealing implications. It is in this field that we must dig further if we want to know how this hitherto peripheral and surrogated dimension of legal decision-making stretches the leeway of legal officials to the very margin of legality, disclosing the social tension and the power struggle between their agency and the structures that condition and enable it.