Before the Law

Thinking judgment in relation to the work of Jean-Franois Lyotard How to judgeJean-Franois Lyotard? It is from this initial question that one of Frances most heralded philosophers of the twentieth century begins his essay on the origin of the law, of judgment, and the work of his colleague Jean-Franois Lyotard. If Jacques Derrida begins with the term prjugs, it is in part because of its impossibility to be rendered properly in other languages and also contain all its meanings: to pre-judge, to judge before judging, to hold prejudices, to know how to judge, and more still, to be already prejudged oneself. Striving to contain that which comes before the law, that is in front of the law and also prior to it, how to judge Jean-Franois Lyotard then becomes perhaps a beneficial attempt for Derrida to explore humanitys rapport with judgment, origins, and naming. For how does one come to judge the author of the Differend? How does one abstain from judgment to accept the term prjugs as suspending judgment and at once as taking into account the impossibility of speaking before the law, prior to naming or judging? If this task indeed seems insurmountable, it is the site where Lyotards work itself is played out. Hence this sincere and intriguing essay presented by Jacques Derrida, published here for the first time in English.