Derridas 1, UC Irvine 0

The University of California has agreed to drop its lawsuit against Jacques Derrida's estate, to give up its claim to Derrida's post-1998 papers, and to pay the Derrida family's attorneys fees. Here is the Chronicle of Higher Ed. story, for those with subscriptions. And here is a more frivolous version from the Los Angeles Times:

Chalk one up for the dead French philosopher.

Three years after professional thinker Jacques Derrida reneged on a promise to donate his scholarly papers to UC Irvine, school officials have dropped their lawsuit against his estate.

As part of a deal announced Monday, UCI also agreed to pay Derrida's widow $16,000 for her legal fees.

Under the pact, the university will keep the Derrida archives it already has, which cover a period from 1946 to 1998, but give up any claim to the rest.

Derrida, who taught part time at UCI from 1986 until his death in 2004, is the father of deconstruction, an influential and bewildering philosophy that questions absolute truth. He is regarded as the most controversial and daring philosopher of the late 20th century.

Bewildering indeed.

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