Heurs et malheurs de la légalité dans les sociétés contemporaines. Une sociologie politique de la «judiciarisation »

Abstract

This article takes stock of the international literature on «judicialization », although it is hardly exhaustive. After recalling the different definitions of « judicialization » and attempting to better distinguish between what is reality and what are representations constructed by the increased role of justice, compared with politics, illustrations are provided in the domain of public policy and, more generally, in the domain of democratic functioning. It appears that what seems to be the true issue of an exceptional mobilization of knowledge on this object is a regime change of legality, a legality that would no longer be the foundation of power, but an instrument of power. This change is associated with and draws on policy transformations to signify in particular the accession of a model of legitimate domination of which the «judicialization », realized or represented, would then become one of its attributes.