The discourse of right masks domination as legitimate sovereignty and obligation.

Evidence

From the Middle Ages onward, the essential role of the theory of right has been to establish the legitimacy of power; the major or central problem around which the theory of right is organized is the problem of sovereignty. To say that the problem of sovereignty is the central problem of right in Western societies means that the essential function of the technique and discourse of right is to dissolve the element of domination in power and to replace that domination, which has to be reduced or masked, with two things: the legitimate rights of the sovereign on the one hand, and the legal obligation to obey on the other. The system of right is completely centered on the king; it is, in other words, ultimately an elimination of domination and its consequences. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 44

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core definition: sovereignty-discourse dissolves and masks domination by recoding it as rights and obedience.
• XREF: Directly prefigures how critical Islamophobia scholarship reads appeals to ‘law’ and ‘security’ as masking domination. — connects to: Pluralism is the best safeguard against ordinary people committing immoral acts under authority — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 469; Natural right functions as history’s perpetual defeated ‘other’; Right is best understood as implementing subjugation rather than establishing legitimacy — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 45 (+3 more)

Related

• Natural right functions as history’s perpetual defeated ‘other’ (similarity 0.86)
• Right is best understood as implementing subjugation rather than establishing legitimacy (similarity 0.85)
• The juridical discourse of sovereignty has dominated Western analysis of power. (similarity 0.82)
• The liberal subject of right derives from state sovereignty, not natural drives. (similarity 0.81)
• Power analysis must shift from sovereignty to relations of domination. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Right is best understood as implementing subjugation rather than establishing legitimacy #corroborates (0.92) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 45