Post-realist approaches convinced us that jurists do not just “speak the law” or, better said, that they do not “speak the law” at all, “the law” being what they say, and what they say being unknowable until they say it. Understanding that the legal material was only a small part of the story, legal theory—once busy with ontologies of norms—went to study legal actor’s behaviours. Many chose to formalise these behaviours with economic models, whether classical or behavioural, in search of a high degree of certitude. On the path to smoother, less formal, but more insightful accounts of the legal actor’s behaviour, one soon encounters the metaphor of “personae” or “characters.” The article that will be presented at this colloquium aims to take the metaphor seriously by proposing a Theory of Legal Characters (“TLC”).
Speaker
Mikhaïl Xifaras, Professor of Public Law, Sciences Po
Discussant
Fuad Zarbiyev, Associate Professor of International Law and Co-Director, LL.M. in International Law, the Graduate Institute
Moderator
Annabelle Littoz-Monnet, Professor, International Relations/Political Science and Director of the Global Governance Centre, the Graduate Institute