Law and truth disguise the historical violence that produced them
Evidence
It is interested in rediscovering the blood that has dried in the codes, and not, therefore, the absolute right that lies beneath the transience of history; it is interested not in referring the relativity of history to the absolute of the law, but in discovering, beneath the stability of the law or the truth, the indefiniteness of history. It is interested in the battle cries that can be heard beneath the formulas of right, in the dissymmetry of forces that lies beneath the equilibrium of justice. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 73
Categorization
- XREF: ‘Blood dried in the codes’ is the genealogical move that later readings in Orientalism and colonial law will echo — the violence sedimented into apparently neutral legal form. — connects to: State institutions secretly organized mob violence through the press; Historical narratives function as disguised lessons in constitutional law — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 141; Opening law to all truths made justice lose control over its own truth — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 158 (+10 more)
Related
Broader Connections
- Political institutions perpetuate the violence that founded them
#expands(0.90) - Law’s neutrality is a myth; legal practice emerges from culture
#expands(0.85) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 643 - Opening law to all truths made justice lose control over its own truth
#expands(0.82) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 158 - Founding myths substitute fabricated narrative for genuine history to serve ruling classes
#expands(0.80) - Historical truth stubbornly resists the storyteller s shaping instincts.
#complicates(0.78) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 874 - Counterhistory functions to disinter truths that power has deliberately concealed
#qualifies(0.75) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 89