Prefiguring the Legal Subject of European Human Rights Law

From Universal Autonomy to Situated Affectivity

Abstract

In legal theory and practice, the legal subject has traditionally been theorised as an autonomous and independent individual with almost superhuman intellectual and physical capabilities, whereas groups and people that do not fit this theoretical norm are conceptualised as vulnerable others. In this article, the legal subject is prefigured as a relational and affective being (or becoming), through the new materialist concept of affectivity. It is argued that the paradigmatic liberal conception of legal subjectivity and the ‘vulnerable groups’ approach to discrimination deters a multifaceted understanding of diverse and heterogeneous legal subjects situated within complex economic and ecological webs. In conclusion, the article suggests a new direction for discrimination assessment as a transformative process of reconstructing legal principles to indiscriminately accommodate the vulnerability and affectivity of all legal subjects and further diverse life forms.