| Author | Colin Dayan |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Legal Studies, Interdisciplinary |
| Publisher | Princeton University Press |
Publication date | 2011 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 368 |
| ISBN | 978-0691070919 |
The Law Is a White Dog: How Legal Rituals Make and Unmake Persons is a book by Colin Dayan, published by Princeton University Press in 2011. This interdisciplinary work explores the constitutive power of law and its role in shaping person-hood through various legal rituals and constructs.
Synopsis
editThe book delves into the historical and contemporary legal frameworks that have defined and redefined person-hood, often through exclusionary practices. Dayan examines the role of legal rituals in the contexts of slavery, imprisonment, punishment, and the treatment of animals, using a rich tapestry of references from law, philosophy, literature, mythology, and historical texts.
Dayan's primary focus is on how law creates and dismantles identities. She uses examples from New World slavery, the U.S. prison system, and legal treatment of animals to illustrate how legal definitions of person-hood have evolved and how these definitions are tied to concepts of property and ownership. The book also addresses the ways in which legal language and rituals can both obscure and perpetuate violence and injustice.
Critical reception
editThe Law Is a White Dog has been widely reviewed and discussed in academic circles. Critics have praised Dayan's imaginative and erudite approach to legal scholarship, highlighting her ability to interweave diverse sources and disciplines to challenge traditional notions of law and person-hood.
Mindie Lazarus-Black, in her review, commended Dayan for her "engrossing, imaginative, and erudite" work that appeals to historians, anthropologists, and sociologists interested in the history of punishment and human rights. Darren Pacione highlighted the book's challenge to how law constitutes identity and its examination of the permeability of legal person-hood. And Martha Merrill Umphrey described the book as a "tour de force of interdisciplinary legal scholarship," noting Dayan's focus on the moral implications of legal practices that unmake personhood.