FOUCAULT AND LAW - TOWARDS A SOCIOLOGY OF LAW AS GOVERNANCE - HUNT,A,WICKHAM,G

The announced purpose of Alan Hunt and Gary Wickham's book; Foucault a nd Law, is ''to demonstrate the pertinence of [Michel] Foucault for co ntemporary issues in legal studies,'' In this review essay, Hugh Baxte r acknowledges the important contributions Hunt and Wickham have made, both in introducing basic Foucaultian concepts to a legal academic au dience, and in identifying the defects in Foucault's explicit discussi ons of law. Yet, Baxter contends, the authors turn too quickly from Fo ucault's work toward their own new research project the ''sociology of law as governance.'' Rather than constructing a new subdiscipline of the sociology of law, Baxter argues, the authors might have considered more directly how Foucault's work could illuminate issues in contempo rary legal studies. Through a critical examination of some exemplary a ppropriations of Foulcault, Baxter suggests the possibilities and limi ts of Foucault's usefulness for legal scholarship.