Rafał Mańko (University of Amsterdam – Centre for the Study of European Contract Law (CSECL)) has posted Symbolic Violence in Technocratic Law and Attempts at Its Overcoming: Politicisation through Humanization? (Studia Erasmiana Vratislaviensia 11 (2017): 31-64) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Technocratic law inflicts symbolic violence on human subjects by imposing upon them a reductionist vision of their existence, limited to the aspect of homo oeconomicus passivus. At the same time, this symbolic violence serves to achieve the main technocratic goal of the depoliticisation of decision-making. Law is perceived through the optic of instrumental rationality, while juridification has nothing to do with justice, but merely serves to insulate technocratic decision-making from the political sphere. This paper enquires whether, in the process of its judicial interpretation, the humanization of technocratic law can lead to its repoliticisation. On the basis of three case studies of three well-known judgments interpreting technocratic law, the article makes the assertion that indeed, humanization can be instrumental to repoliticisation. However, the final conclusion is that politicisation is only the first step, and a further one is to ask specifically about the subject of interests protected by the law.