Benjamin held that law emptied of content ceases and merges with life

Evidence

In Agamben’s account, whereas Scholem insists that the relation with the law is one in which law “does not signify,” yet “still affirms itself by the fact that it is in force,” Benjamin objects to “Scholem’s notion of a being in force without significance.” Benjamin argues that “a law that has lost its content ceases to exist and becomes indistinguishable from life.” Benjamin reads Kafka as announcing “law’s fulfillment,” its “becoming indistinguishable from the life over which it ought to rule.” With Kafka, Benjamin would thus let “no form oflaw remain in force beyond its own content.” — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 755

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes Scholem’s ‘being in force without significance’ from Benjamin’s rejection of that notion — a key conceptual contrast in messianic thought.
• XREF: Connects to Benjamin’s Kafka essay and the decline-of-the-law theme; relevant to the reader’s interest in law-and-infrastructure as worldbuilding material.