Desires make and unmake us, and laws do so too. But law has often been understood as the domain of reason, devoid of feeling and affect. This seminar brings these two spheres together, inviting papers that examine the affective life of law as a means of social autopoiesis. In an attempt to move beyond what justice calls for at a practical level, we are primarily interested in how justice is articulated (or not); its rhetorical modes; the modalities that shape it, and the transgressions it makes  manifest. What is at stake in the ways we articulate our desire for justice? Can desire itself be understood as a mode of justice?

Among the questions we aim to pose are:

Does law desire? 

What is the relationship between transgression and autonomy? 

What is the relationship between law and pleasure?

How is the pursuit of justice, or the call for it, articulated as a modality, an order of desire?

We welcome papers dealing with multiple media, academic as well as artistic. We invite scholars and artists dealing with intersections of law and the humanities, psychoanalysis, legal theory, and anthropology. Key themes and concepts we are interested in exploring include but are not limited to submission, exile, excommunication, seduction, confession, and obsession. 

Submit your abstracts through the ACLA portal, and for any questions reach out to Yiorgos-Evgenios Douliakas [email protected] and Lindsay Stern [email protected]