Aáprovocative investigation of how law shapes everyday life. In this groundbreaking work, French legal scholar Alain Supiot examines the relationship of society to legal discourse. He argues that religion and the state no longer underwrite fundamental values, and consequently that the law functions as the sole arbiter of human relations. Supiot's exploration of the development of the "legal subject"--the individual as formed through a dense web of contracts and laws--is set to become a classic work of social theory.