"Among the last generation of continental philosophers Derrida stands out as the most jurisprudential of thinkers. His early work on literary texts was already focused on laws of genre, on being before the law, and upon the legality of speech acts. His later work on the violent foundations of authority and on the force of law further propelled deconstruction into legal studies. This volume traces the path of Derrida's original and provocative legal insights and also maps the geographical and jurisdictional passages of his ideas."--Jacket.