Abstract
The book deals with the ways political and expert (especially legal and criminological) discourses formulate and reproduce the meanings, assumptions and definitions constructing the man as a subject of criminal law, a subject responsible for his actions. It focuses on the ways the political domain (in particular, the lower and upper chambers of the Czech Parliament) and the scientific domain (in particular, legal science, criminology and psychiatry) form and formulate the opinions of "criminal law" and the ways these opinions are reflected in meanings embodied in criminal law itself.
Methodologically, the book builds on critical discourse analysis. Put in plain language, what makes discourse significant is the oppression it brings upon us by defining what can be said about the world and how one can meaningfully act in it.
Thus, it is not (only) a reflection of another, more real reality and it cannot be fully reduced to some other social phenomena. Therefore, by investigating discourse, one can identify the assumptions social actors build on and the argumentative frameworks they apply in discourse.
