Is postmodernism compatible with a strong commitment to human agency and autonomy? Is critical judgement still possible when the legal subject is revealed by postmodern scrutiny simply to be an assemblage of social constructions? Through an examination of the influence upon critical social theory of Habermas, Foucault, Derrida and Lacan, this book considers how postmodernism has formed in Western thinking over the last half century. Identifying Kantianism as a common thread that runs through both traditional and postmodern legal theory via the work of Adorno and Horkheimer, the book considers the ethical questions that postmodernism raises for the legitimation of legal rules and legal judgements. Ultimately, the author proposes a reading of postmodernism for legal reasoning and adjudication that retains those elements of the liberal promise that foster and protect individual agency. Arguing that social diversity is the corollary of such agency, the author asserts that postmodernism is compatible with critical judgement. This book will be welcomed as a perceptive and stimulating work by legal, political and social theorists alike.