Publication details
Argumentation 2025: Games of Law
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| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Conference |
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| Description | The Argumentation 2025 conference continues the project of creating space for alternative perspectives on law, fostering the emergence of critical jurisprudences that challenge legal orthodoxy. This year’s theme is Games of Law, an invitation to explore how legal practices can be viewed through the metaphor of games and the deeper implications this brings for understanding legal authority, fairness, and justice. The metaphor of games has long been used to analyze social structures, with Johan Huizinga’s concept of homo ludens framing play as an essential aspect of human culture (Huizinga, 1980, 4). Law, too, can be seen as a form of structured play, where participants – judges, lawyers, litigants – operate within defined rules to achieve specific outcomes (Dybowski et al. 2022). Yet, just as in games, legal practices produce both winners and losers, with real-world consequences. Moreover, law, as a system of structured conflict, reflects the inherent tensions and contradictions within human thinking and interaction. Legal practices, like games, are grounded in conflict – both internal and external – an unavoidable part of the human condition. Instead of attempting to eliminate conflict, legal systems strive to manage and transform it, utilizing discursive representations that foster resilience against its destructive forms. These mechanisms not only enable the resolution of disputes but also contribute to broader societal stability and justice. This year’s conference will interrogate how law functions as a game and what this metaphor reveals about power, justice, and the nature of legal authority, while also exploring how the dynamics of conflict and resilience are embedded in legal thinking and practices. How can the game metaphor help us better understand law’s role in addressing societal tensions, managing conflicts, and strengthening communal resilience? |
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