Right is best understood as implementing subjugation rather than establishing legitimacy

Evidence

I have been trying to do the opposite, or in other words to stress the fact of domination in all its brutality and its secrecy, and then to show not only that right is an instrument of that domination—that is self-evident—but also how, to what extent, and in what form right (and when I say right, I am not thinking just of the law, but of all the apparatuses, institutions, and rules that apply it) serves as a vehicle for and implements relations that are not relations of sovereignty, but relations of domination. … Right must, I think, be viewed not in terms of a legitimacy that has to be established, but in terms of the procedures of subjugation it implements. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 45

Categorization

• DEFINE: Foucault redefines ‘right’ — not just law but the whole apparatus, institutions, and implementing rules — as a vehicle for domination rather than legitimacy.
• XREF: This inversion of ‘right/legitimacy’ into ‘right/subjugation’ is the scaffold Gramsci’s hegemony and later Orientalist critiques of colonial law will build on. — connects to: Natural right functions as history’s perpetual defeated ‘other’; The discourse of right masks domination as legitimate sovereignty and obligation. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 44; Power, right, and truth form an indissociable analytical triangle. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 42 (+6 more)

Related

• The discourse of right masks domination as legitimate sovereignty and obligation. (similarity 0.85)
• Natural right functions as history’s perpetual defeated ‘other’ (similarity 0.85)
• Resistance to disciplinary power requires a new right, not a return to sovereignty. (similarity 0.80)
• Power, right, and truth form an indissociable analytical triangle. (similarity 0.79)
• Domination is analyzed via its functioning instruments, not its legitimation (similarity 0.79)
• Subaltern forces resist rationalization intended to serve dominant interests. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Legitimacy can be derived from constitutional practices rather than from justifications. #contradicts (0.88) — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 15
• Hegemony is rule achieved through consent rather than coercion #contradicts (0.85) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 626
• Legitimacy is better understood as contingency control than as justification or consent. #contradicts (0.85)
• Pious submission can be a genuine autonomous choice, not imposed subjugation #contradicts (0.80)
• Subordinated regimes of truth sustain plausibility for oppressed subjects #expands (0.75)
• Political legitimacy requires free speech, association, and representation #contradicts (0.75) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1248