Justice Without Measure?
| Published date | 01 September 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12172 |
| Date | 01 September 2019 |
| Author | David Nelken |
Review Article
Justice Without Measure?
David Nelken*
GOVERNANCE BY NUMBERS: THE MAKING OF A LEGAL MODEL OF
ALLEGIANCE by ALAIN SUPIOT
(Oxford: Hart, 2017, 336 pp., £65.00)
The latest book by the eminent French scholar, Alain Supiot,
1
is a highly
readable if intellectually challenging effort to pin down the effects on law of
the move to `governance through numbers'. It also seeks to describe and
warn of the inadequacies of the `legal model of allegiance' that he argues
accompanies or follows this move. Ably translated by Saskia Brown from
the French La gouvernance par les nombres,
2
it builds on Supiot's previous
work, especially Homo Juriducus,
3
and draws on and contributes to a wide
variety of literatures. With much of its argument focused on what has
happened to employment relations, the book has been praised as an impor-
tant contribution to labour law
4
(something to be expected given his emin-
ence in this field). It has also been hailed as a `tour de force' by
constitutional lawyers (and appears in a series dedicated to comparative
public law).
5
As its title suggests, however, those interested in legal and
social theory will also want to consider its relevance for understanding the
497
*Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College, Strand, London WC2R 2LS,
England
david.nelken@kcl.ac.uk
1 Supiot is a fellow of the ColleÁge de France, elected to a chair called `E
Âtat social et
mondialisation: analyse juridique des solidariteÂs'. He is also a corresponding member
of the British Academy.
2Poids et mesures du monde (2015).
3 See the review by P. Goodrich, `Law's labour's lost' (2009) 72 Modern Law Rev.
296.
4 Z. Adams, reviewing the original monograph in French in (2017) 46 Industrial Law J.
163.
5 See M. Goldoni, review in (2018) 16 International J. of Constitutional Law 1041.
ß2019 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2019 Cardiff University Law School
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