1 Introduction 1
Dominant readings of Derrida in the legal context 2
Derrida and the metaphysics of presence 13
Title and series 37
Sequence and overview of chapters 40
2 Declarations of independence 43
Speech acts: founding a state 45
Representation 57
The signature 60
The proper name 67
Beyond sovereignty 72
3 Before the law 74
Freud's Totem and Taboo 75
Levi-Strauss on totemism and the prohibition of incest 77
Derrida on Levi-Strauss 81
Before the law 84
Originary guilt and parricide 92
4 Madness and the law 95
Cogito and the history of madness 96
Doing justice to Freud 107
Law and madness 111
5 The gift beyond exchange 113
Heidegger and metaphysics 114
Mauss's The Gift 122
Derrida on the gift 125
The gift, time and law 138
6 Force of law 141
Justice, singularity and the event 141
Undecidability 150
The 'mystical foundation of authority' 153
Repetition and law-enforcing violence 158
'Applying' justice 162
7 The haunting of justice 165
Heidegger's reading 166
Derrida's reading 181
The revolution 191
8 Hospitality towards the future 192
Rethinking conceptuality 194
Law, politics and hospitality 196
Legal philosophers of a new species 197
Bibliography 200
Index 214