State of Exception, Law and Economy: A socio-legal approach to the economy of exception in an era of crisis

Departing from a critical understanding of the relationship between state, law and power, we propose a critical overview of the concept of the state of exception developed by Giorgio Agamben. We emphasise the idea that the principle of legal exceptionality is not as merely used in response to the cu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jose Manuel Atiles-Osoria, David Whyte
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law 2018-12-01
Series:Oñati Socio-Legal Series
Subjects:
Online Access:http://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/1056
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Summary:Departing from a critical understanding of the relationship between state, law and power, we propose a critical overview of the concept of the state of exception developed by Giorgio Agamben. We emphasise the idea that the principle of legal exceptionality is not as merely used in response to the current crisis in capitalism, but is an enduring and core technique of power used by states to reproduce economic and colonial power relations. Thus, this paper offers three core points of departure from dominant understandings of the state of exception. First, we urge a rupture of the crude opposition between positive law and the state of exception. Second, we argue for a rejection of limited Western concept of (liberal, political) rights. Finally, we argue for an attention to the materiality of power relations, rather than a narrow focus on the power projected by formal institutions of state power. <br /><br /> Nuestra aproximaci&oacute;n al concepto de estado de excepci&oacute;n desarrollado por Giorgio Agamben surge de una comprensi&oacute;n cr&iacute;tica de la relaci&oacute;n entre Estado, derecho y poder. Hacemos hincapi&eacute; en que el principio de excepcionalidad jur&iacute;dica no es meramente utilizado en respuesta a la actual crisis capitalista, sino que es una t&eacute;cnica de poder central y duradera utilizada por el Estado para reproducir relaciones de poder econ&oacute;micas y coloniales. Esta introducci&oacute;n ofrece tres puntos centrales a partir de la comprensi&oacute;n dominante del estado de excepci&oacute;n: primero, planteamos una ruptura con la oposici&oacute;n cruda entre derecho positivo y estado de excepci&oacute;n; segundo, arg&uuml;imos en favor del rechazo de la concepci&oacute;n limitada occidental (liberal y pol&iacute;tica) de los derechos; finalmente, defendemos prestar atenci&oacute;n a la materialidad de las relaciones de poder, m&aacute;s que al &eacute;nfasis limitado en el poder protegido por las instituciones formales del poder estatal. <br /><strong><br /> DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN:</strong> <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=3248981" target="_blank">http://ssrn.com/abstract=3248981</a>
ISSN:2079-5971