Abstract
Lacan’s psychoanalytical theory is of interest to legal theorists for a number of reasons. In particular, the concept of the Name of the Father allows a sophisticated theorisation of law and legal institutions. However, the Name of the Father was not Lacan’s only theory of law. In his final Seminars, Lacan developed a second and fundamentally different theory of law: the sinthome. By drawing upon Roberto Harari’s commentary on Lacan’s concept of the sinthome, the sinthome can be investigated in terms of topology, chaos, and morphogenetic theories. This can allow a complex theory of the sinthome to be put forward as real, immanent, emergent ordering through the de-limiting of singularities. From this a concept of Sinthome Law can be developed as a novel concept of law, and as a potential way to understand some contemporary problematics in law. The example of the emerging law on electronic signatures is introduced to indicate this.
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Murray, J. Sinthome Law: Theoretical Constructions upon Lacan’s Concept of the Sinthome. Law Critique 16, 201–230 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-005-4467-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-005-4467-y