NEOLIBERALISM AND JUDICIARY SOCIETY IN FOUCAULT

Abstract

This article reconstructs Foucault’s genealogical analysis of German neoliberalism or ordoliberalism, in order to then address the problem of the relationship between neoliberalism and judiciary society in contemporary times. In neoliberal society, the promotion of competition between corporations inevitably leads to conflicts that, in many cases, turn into judicial demands. Now, the conception that conflicts should not be eradicated, but managed, converted into competitive relations and returned to the market, has become widespread among law operators. Foucault shows that a vicious circle is established there: more competition implies more processes, which implies more competition, and so on. The business society and the judiciary society are two sides of a same coin. Hence the need to analyze both the judicialization of politics and the politicization of the judiciary in the light of the genealogical critique of neoliberalism.