The Empowered Self Law and Society in an Age of Individualism [Hardcover]

This book examines the gradual emancipation of the individual in national and international law and the changing social attitudes towards personal choice in constituting identity. It demonstrates that this desire of persons for choice is not limited to Western industrial society but a historical development powered by such independent variables as urbanization, the communications revolution, education, and economic development.

1. Tribe, Nation, State: Traditional Forms of Imposed Identity
2. The Dreary Future of Imposed Identity: A World of 2,000 States
3. A Different Future: Individualism as Identity
4. Citizenship: An Instance of Identity as a Personal act of Self-Determination
5. Community Based on Personal Autonomy
6. Freedom of Conscience: A Western Value?
7. Constructing the Self: Name, Gender, Career and Privacy
8. The Individual as Emerging Rights-Holder
9. The Individual Against the Group
10. Personal Freedom, Personal Responsibility and Their Democratic Reconciliation
11. Summing Up

The Empowered Selfis not solely for the specialist; its audience will likely include many beyond the field of law. Overall, it is a lucid, comprehensive, and timely analysis. It successfully draws from a remarkably wide array of materials to build a coherent synthesis. --Michigan Law Review

Thomas Franckis Professor of Law and Director of the Center for International Studies at New York University