Formal legal equality obscures real inequality because equivalence as a legal norm ignores difference
Evidence
In Negative Dialectics, Adorno would again return to this motif – that of the ‘universal exchange of equivalents’ as the law ‘which flouts justice’: … Law is the primal phenomenon of irrational rationality. In law the formal principle of equivalence becomes the norm; everyone is treated alike. An equalityinwhichdifferencesperishsecretlyservestopromoteinequality; it becomes the myth that survives amidst an only seemingly demythologized mankind. For the sake of an unbroken systematic, the legal norms cut short what is not covered, every specific experience that has not been shaped in advance; and then they raise the instrumental rationality to the rank of a second reality sui generis. The total legal realm is one of definitions. Its systematic forbids the admission of anything that eludes their closed circle, of anything quod non est in actis. These bounds, ideological in themselves, turn into real violence as they are sanctioned by law as the socially controlling authority, in the administered world in particular. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 786
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the core Adorno read here on the exchange of equivalents / value-form, which ties to the Marxian critique of political economy that frames this book. — connects to: Abstract legal recognition of rights fails to overturn women’s concrete economic inferiority — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 57; Formal legal equality masks substantive inequality between rich and poor; European continent substituted formal legal equality for real equality of condition (+17 more)
- DEFINE: Defines what Adorno means by ‘irrational rationality’ and ‘ideology of positive law’ — the formal principle of equivalence as myth.
Broader Connections
- Formal legal equality masks substantive inequality between rich and poor
#corroborates(1.00) - Law converts difference into sameness to enable formal equal treatment
#corroborates(0.90) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 82 - European continent substituted formal legal equality for real equality of condition
#expands(0.85) - Legal equality before the law requires negating actual individuality
#expands(0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 793 - Formal political equality coexisted with birth-determined class inequality in Europe
#exemplifies(0.85) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 89 - Colonial discourse distinguishes legal equality from factual inequality to justify hierarchy
#expands(0.80) — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 236 - Legal rights require rigid binary categories that reject graded differences
#expands(0.80) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 755 - Formal citizenship equality coexists with inequality that provokes social conflict
#exemplifies(0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 824 - True equality among people is impossible due to inescapable uniqueness
#expands(0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 187