The exception to law defines sovereignty as much as the law itself

Evidence

Homo sacer originally meant someone excluded from society because of a trespass. One may kill him without suffering punishment. The sovereign disposes of absolute power to suspend the standing legal order. He embodies the legislative power [rechtset-zende Gewalt] that stands outside of legal order [Rechtsordnung] yet maintains a relation with it. Thus, the sovereign does not need to be right to determine rights [So braucht der Souverän nicht Recht zu haben, um Recht zu setzen]. The state of exception, by suspending the legal order, produces a lawless space where it is possible for any and every individual to be seized absolutely [ein absoluter Zugriff auf jeden einzelnen möglich ist]. Sovereignty’s originary achievement is to have produced the bare life of homo sacer. This life is bare because it stands outside the legal order and therefore can be destroyed at any time. — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 128 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Sovereignty produces a will to law rather than a rule of law — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 418; Sovereignty means endlessly re-creating the subject, unbound by principle or contradiction.; Sovereignty rests on the power to kill, not the power of exception — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 703 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Sovereignty originally produces bare life through the state of exception. #expands (0.92) — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 128