Passion of the strong. Law as a treaty of passions

Abstract

Both the social function of the cultural artefact that we call Law and the work of jurists, can be interpreted in term of passions. This paper discusses the complementary hypotheses of Law as a passion of the strong or as a resource of the weak. Secondly, it examines some passions which are inseparable from the Law, such as power, hate, resentment or revenge. Finally, the article proposes the analysis of two contradictory passions: the passion for the Law, which includes the extreme desire of justice at all costs, and the passion to overcome Law as a social mediation tool.