In war, law persists as force while emptied of significance
Evidence
In the state of war-that is to say, in the permanent possibility of warlaw is “reduced to the zero point of its significance, which is nevertheless in force as such” (Agamben, Homo Sacer, 51). — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 861 (
#expands, via linked claim)
If traditionally embodied conceptions of justice and unconsciously assimilated experience are no longer relevant to the maintenance of law’s authority, then that authority will depend entirely on the force of the state expressed through its codes. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 1155 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
If traditionally embodied conceptions of justice and unconsciously assimilated experience are no longer relevant to the maintenance of law’s authority, then that authority will depend entirely on the force of the state expressed through its codes. … I argue that it is the power to make a strategic separation between law and morality that defines the colonial situation, because it is this separation that enables the legal work of educating subjects into a new public morality. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 1155 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Perverted justice under legal forms still constitutes a state of war — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 28; A law that has lost its content becomes indistinguishable from life; War can invert from disruption of law into law’s governing principle — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 179 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Law retains force precisely when reduced to insignificance in the state of exception.
#expands(0.97) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 861 - Severing law from embodied moral tradition makes state force its sole authority
#complicates(0.73) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 1155 - Law loses its legitimacy when detached from embodied moral sensibilities.
#complicates(0.72) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 1155