Between the Norm & The Exception – The Frankfurt School & the Rule of Law (Paper): The Frankfurt School and the Rule of Law (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought)

Winner 1996 Elaine and David Spitz Book Prize for the best book onliberal and democratic theory Conference for the Study of Political Thought. Winner 1994 First Book Prize Foundations of Political Thought Organized Section American Political Science Association.Between the Norm and the Exception contributes historical insight to the ongoing debate over the future of the rule of law in welfare-state capitalist democracies. The core issue is whether or not society can offer its citizens welfare-state guarantees and still preserve the liberal vision of a norm-based legal system. Franz Neumann and Otto Kirchheimer in an age dominated by Hitler and Stalin sought to establish a sound theoretical basis for the rule of law ideal. As an outcome of their sophisticated understanding of the liberal political tradition their writings suggest a theoretical missed opportunity an alternative critical theory that might usefully be applied in understanding (and perhaps countering) the contemporary trend toward the deformalization of law.