Contextual Subjects

Legal subjects are the individuals that law and legal discourse presuppose and produce. As such, views on the nature of the legal subject are constantly shifting in accordance with the law. "Contextual Subjects" argues that a new view of the legal subject has indeed emerged and that it is now embedded in social context and relationships.Robert Leckey argues that it is not only the view of the subject that is contextual. Legal discourse and adjudication have become more contextual, making family law and administrative law themselves contextual subjects. Leckey bolsters this argument through the use of relational theory, a rich strand of feminist political theory that advocates a contextual method and seeks to promote constructive relationships that enable relational autonomy. Developments in family law and administrative law, therefore, exemplify the contextualism called for by relational theorists. Leckey points out the importance of contextualization, but he is not uncritical of relational theory, insisting that it should articulate more forcefully its normative vision of good relationships and offer clear recommendations in contested areas." Contextual Subjects" is the most thorough and sustained application of relational theory to legal examples to appear. It is unique among Canadian legal scholarship for its pairing of family law and administrative law, and among legal scholarship in English for its integration of common law and civil law materials.