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[[Lacan]]'s discussions of the "[[Law]]" (which [[Lacan]] often writes with a [[capital ]] "L") owe much to the [[work ]] of [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]]. As in the work of [[Lévi-Strauss]], the [[Law]] in [[Lacan]]'s work refers not to a [[particular ]] piece of legislation, but to ''the fundamental principles which underlie all [[social ]] relations''. The [[law]] is the set of [[universal ]] principles which make social [[existence ]] possible, ''the [[structure]]s that govern all forms of [[anthropology|social exchange]]'', whether [[anthropology|gift-giving]], [[anthropology|kinship relations]] or the [[formation ]] of pacts.

Since the most basic [[form ]] of [[anthropology|exchange]] is [[communication]] itself, the [[law]] is fundamentally a [[linguistic]] entity -- it is the [[law]] of the [[signifier]]:<blockquote>This law, then, is revealed clearly enough as identical with an [[order ]] of [[language]]. For without kinship nominations, no [[power ]] is capable of instituting the order of preferences and taboos that [[bind ]] and weave the yarn of lineage through succeeding generations.<ref>{{E}} p. 66</ref></blockquote>

Following [[Lévi-Strauss]], [[Lacan]] argues that the [[law]] is essentially [[human]]; it is the [[law]] which separates [[man]] from the [[other ]] [[nature|animal]]s, by regulating [[sexual relationship|sexual relations]] that are, among [[nature|animal]]s, unregulated: <blockquote>"([[Human]] [[law]] is) the primordial Law... which in regulating [[marriage ]] ties superimposes the kingdom of [[culture ]] on that of a [[nature ]] abandoned to the law of mating. The prohibition of incest is merely its [[subjective ]] pivot."<ref>{{E}} p. 66</ref></blockquote>

It is the [[father]] who imposes this [[law]] on the [[subject]] in the [[Oedipus complex]]; the [[Name-of-the-Father|paternal agency]] (or [[Name-of-the-Father|paternal function]]) is no more than the [[name ]] for this prohibitive and legislative [[role]]. In the second [[time ]] of the [[Oedipus complex]] the [[father]] appears as the omnipotent "father of the [[primal ]] [[horde]]" of ''[[Totem and Taboo]]''.<ref>{{F}} ''[[Works of Sigmund Freud|Totem and Taboo]]'', 1912-13. [[SE]] XIII, 1-161.</ref> This is the lawgiver who is not included in his own [[law]] because he ''is'' the [[Law]], denying [[others ]] access to the [[women]] of the tribe while he himself has access to [[them ]] all. In the [[third ]] time of the [[Oedipus complex]] the [[father]] is included in his own [[law]], the [[law]] is revealed as a pact rather than an imperative.

The [[Oedipus complex]] represents the regulation of [[desire]] by the [[law]]. It is the [[law]] of the [[pleasure principle]], which commands the [[subject]] to "[[Enjoy ]] as little as possible!", and thus maintains the [[subject]] at a safe distance from the [[Thing]]. The [[relationship ]] between the [[law]] and [[desire]] is, however, a [[dialectic]]al one; "desire is the reverse of the law."<ref>{{Ec}} p. 787</ref> If, on the one hand, [[law]] imposes limits on [[desire]], it is also [[true ]] that the [[law]] creates [[desire]] in the first [[place ]] by creating interdiction. [[Desire]] is essentially the [[desire]] to [[transgress]], and for there to be [[transgression]] it is first necesary for there to be [[prohibition]].<ref>{{S7}} p.83-4</ref> Thus it is not the [[case ]] that there is a pregiven [[desire]] which the [[law]] then regulates, but that [[desire]] is [[born ]] out of the [[process ]] of regulation.

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