Law, life and the images of man

Jan M. Broekman is since 1996 Professor emeritus of Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) and of Philosophy and Medical Ethics at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam (Netherlands). During a long and distinguished career he has won an international reputation for his work in the fields of legal anthropology, legal theory and the philosophy of law and medicine. He published widely in these fields and lectured throughout Europe, Latin America and the United States of America. This Festschrift reflects some important themes of his work, especially the ones concerning the intertwinement of legal, medical and moral discourse and its related aspects in technology, politics and anthropology. Due to their different fields of research, the authors approach their topic from their own scientific and cultural perspective. The contributions provide the reader with well-documented and skilled insights into specific questions in many countries like Germany, Brasil, Chile, Italy, Belgium and the United States of America. The composition of the colourful range of contributions is focussed on the core theme of both legal modernism and post-modernism: the tacit assumption of a discursive unity behind thinking, acting and talking. The mimetic representation of man and humanity in legal and medical discourse is built on this assumption. Fundamental questions belonging to the discursive unity are dealt with, for instance concerning language and reality; being and mimesis; norms, rights and facts. They are confronted with actual questions in health care (quality of life, autonomy, the elderly), in European politics and in economics. The contributions document the leading developments in today's legal, medical and philosophical debates. They will provide the reader with outstanding thoughts on the future orientation of law in society.