Special Courts, Political Violence and the Law: Empirical Research in the State of Exception

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colm Campbell ◽  
Fionnuala D. Ni Aolain
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
The Law

‘I Am the Law’: District Commissioner Fiction and the State of Exception

2019 ◽  
pp. 26-53
Author(s):  
Katherine Isobel Baxter
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
The Law ◽  
Indirect Rule ◽  
District Commissioner

Chapter Two identifies and anatomizes an important subgenre in the adventure tradition in literature: District Commissioner fiction. This subgenre is significant because, while in the nineteenth century the colonial hero was typically represented as a buccaneer outside the law, District Commissioner fiction repositions the hero within and as the law. Edgar Wallace’s Sanders of the River series is read alongside works by Arthur E. Southon in relation to theories of the state of exception, to demonstrate how the District Commissioner and the policy of indirect rule that he represents are figured exceptionally, standing outside the law as the force of law.

Undocumented Migrants As Homo Sacer: Cases From Botswana and South Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 002190962094634
Author(s):  
France Maphosa ◽  
Christopher Ntau
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
The State ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Law

The concept of homo sacer originates from ancient Roman law under which an individual who committed a certain kind of crime was excluded from society and all his/her rights as a citizen were revoked. This paper uses a few selected cases reported in the media of Botswana and South Africa to demonstrate why undocumented migrants in the two countries fit Agamben’s description of homo sacer. While migrants in general, whether documented or undocumented, are targets of violence, exploitation and discrimination in these countries, undocumented migrants are particularly vulnerable because of their ‘illegal’ status. Although violence against undocumented migrants is not formally endorsed by the state, their description as a problem or a threat to society places them in a state of exception which is virtually outside the protection of the law.

Pirates of Silicon Valley: State of exception and dispossession in Web 2.0

First Monday ◽  
2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Jakobsson ◽  
Fredrik Stiernstedt
Keyword(s):  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Silicon Valley ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Primitive Accumulation ◽  
Free Labor ◽  
Capitalist Economy ◽  
The Law ◽  
Cultural Commons ◽  
Informational Economy

This paper investigates a paradox in the reception of Web 2.0. While some of its services are seen as creators of a new informational economy and are hence publicly legitimized, other features are increasingly under surveillance and policed, although in reality the differences between these services is far from obvious. Our thesis is that we are currently experiencing a temporary postponement of the law, in the context of Web 2.0. Agamben’s work on the state of exception is here used to theorize the informational economy as an ongoing dispossession, under the guise of ‘networked production’. This dispossession is seen as a parallel to the concept of ‘primitive accumulation’, as a means of moving things from the exterior to the interior of the capitalist economy. This theory lets us problematize the concept of free labor, the metaphor of the enclosure, and puts into question the dichotomy between copyright and cultural commons.

SAYYIDA ZAYNAB IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION: SHIʿI SAINTHOOD AS “QUALIFIED LIFE” IN CONTEMPORARY SYRIA

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edith Szanto
Keyword(s):  
Refugee Camp ◽  
The State ◽  
Concentration Camp ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Nazi Concentration Camp ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
The Law

AbstractAccording to Giorgio Agamben, a “state of exception” is established by the sovereign's decision to suspend the law, and the archetypical state of exception is the Nazi concentration camp. At the same time, Agamben notes that boundaries have become blurred since then, such that even spaces like refugee camps can be thought of as states of exception because they are both inside and outside the law. This article draws on the notion of the state of exception in order to examine the Syrian refugee campcumshrine town of Sayyida Zaynab as well as to analyze questions of religious authority, ritual practice, and pious devotion to Sayyida Zaynab. Though Sayyida Zaynab and many of her Twelver Shiʿi devotees resemble Agamben's figure ofhomo sacer, who marked the origin of the state of exception, they also defy Agamben's theory that humans necessarily become animal-like, leading nothing more than “bare lives” (orzoē) in states of exception.

scholarly journals Juridical Analysis of Legal Aid Implementation for Underprivileged Communities: Problems and Challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-498
Author(s):  
Alycia Sandra Dinar Andhini
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Legal Culture ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Assistance ◽  
Legal Aid ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Law ◽  
Gain Access

Legal Aid is organized to help resolve legal issues faced by Legal Aid Recipients. The birth of Law No. 16 of 2011 concerning Legal Aid provides new hope for the poor to gain access to justice and equality before the law. This writing aims to determine the implementation of the provision of legal aid and the obstacles that influence it in its implementation because sometimes the implementation of Law Number 16 of 2011 concerning Legal Aid in Indonesian Courts is not optimal. This research focuses on the application of legal aid to the poor, the challenges and problems they face. The method used in this research is empirical research. This study found that in the application of legal aid in several regions in Indonesia, the main problem faced in addition to the lack of availability of accredited legal aid institutions, was also the issue of the budget provided by the state. In addition, in terms of the legal culture of the community, the implementation of legal aid is not optimal due to the understanding of the community not to have anything to do with the law so that many cases that should receive legal assistance cannot be accompanied.  

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Conor McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
The Social ◽  
Historical Phenomenon ◽  
The Law ◽  
Two Bodies

While exclusion from law is often assumed to be an historical phenomenon, the discussion here argues that it is an enduring and important tactic of state power. Such exclusion can occur in two directions – exclusion above the law (as where the state licenses itself or its agents to act with impunity) or exclusion below the law (as where the state excludes an individual or group from the law's protection). This book concerns itself with both, and in doing so, offers readings from two bodies of literature in English not normally read in tandem – the literature of outlawry, and the literature of espionage. This Introduction briefly surveys some influential previous work in this area – in particular Eric Hobsbawm’s notion of the ‘social bandit’ and Giorgio Agamben’s idea of the homo sacer and his related study of the ‘state of exception’ – and sets out the argument to follow.

scholarly journals Fracturing the “Exception”: The Legal Sanctioning of Violent Interrogation Methods in Israel since 1987

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 818-838
Author(s):  
Irit Ballas
Keyword(s):  
State Violence ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
The Law

This article examines the legal constructs governing the use of violent interrogation methods in Israel since 1987. It explores the shift from a sweeping suspension of the prohibition on torture to a fractured legal regime in which the different elements of interrogation—the perpetrator, the victim, the time of the interrogation, and the space in which it takes place—are effectively excluded from the prohibition on torture by means of separate legal constructs. I show how each of these constructs creates a narrow, seemingly proportional exception to ordinary law. Together, the four types of exception facilitate the sanctioning of state violence. I use this case to analyze the available configurations of the state of exception, distinguishing them from each other by what they exclude from ordinary law. By showing how the proliferation of legal constructs produces an entire ecosystem of different exceptions, I point to the inherent link between the suspension of the law and its proliferation: both create legal categories that rationalize and legitimize state violence.

scholarly journals A Tensão entre Constitucionalismo e Exceção: a Ordem Estatal sobreposta aos Direitos Fundamentais / The Tension between Constitutionalism and Exception: when the State Order Prevails over Fundamental Rights

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrique Smidt Simon
Keyword(s):  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Political Life ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Brazilian State ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Government ◽  
Legal Strategies

Resumo: Cada vez mais o poder público limita direitos e aumenta a repressão, sem corrigir as falhas que levam ao conflito. Isso indica o uso do direito como garantidor de ordem, não de liberdade. O intento deste artigo é mostrar, discutindo as noções de estado e constituição, o conflito entre liberdade e ordem e como o direito serve para proteger a primeira. Assim, relaciona-se a legalidade no estado contemporâneo com a limitação do poder. Faz-se, então, a relação com a ideia de nação e a prevalência da vontade do estado. Após, trabalha-se o estado de exceção e como a ordem e a coerção estatal são postas acima dos direitos e garantias constitucionais. A prevalência da ordem sobre a proteção constitucional pode ser vista nas manifestações de junho de 2013; nos rolezinhos e na situação do presídio de Pedrinhas, exemplos da lógica do estado de exceção incorporada à vida política brasileira, o que responde à discussão teórica que os antecede. Ademais, o estado brasileiro aumenta seu poder de repressão com estratégias jurídicas que diminuem seus limites ou seu controle. O texto defende a necessidade de retomar as lógicas da legalidade e do constitucionalismo para combater a naturalização do estado de exceção. Abstract: Nowadays is getting usual for the government to limit rights and expand its capacity of repression without correcting the flaws that cause conflicts. This indicates the use of the law as a way to grant order, not liberty. The aim of this article is to show, discussing the ideas of state and constitution, the tension between liberty and order and how the law should work to protect the former. Thus, the contemporaneous state is related to legality, understood as a mean to limit the state power. Then, the concept of state of exception is presented and is shown as the state order and coercion overlap constitutional rights. This overlapping can be seen in the “June 2013” protests; in the flash mob situations and in the case of “Pedrinhas” Prison. Those are examples of the logic of the state of exception embodied to the Brazilian political life. Furthermore, Brazilian state increases its repression power by using legal strategies that decrease its means of being restrained. The text asserts the need to rethink legality and constitutionalism as a way to fight the naturalization of the state of exception.

scholarly journals Continuities and Discontinuities: Antiziganism in Germany and Italy (1900-1938)

2020 ◽  
pp. 51-80
Author(s):  
Jennifer Illuzzi
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Weimar Germany ◽  
Executive Authority ◽  
Legislative Policies ◽  
The Law

In both Germany and Italy before WWI, populations labelled as Gypsies found themselves in a “state of exception” which aimed at their elimination from the nation-state by targeting them with policies emanating from the executive. Both states adhered to the liberal idea of equality before the law, but used the flexibility provided by executive authority to pressure Gypsies to leave the state. After WWI, both Germany and Italy were forced to retain “Gypsies” inside the state as a result of changing geopolitical circumstances. However, in fascist Italy before WWII, executive authorities continued to operate in a “state of exception” and ceased adhering to the rule of law, interning Gypsies in concentration camps and seeking to eliminate them through forced assimilation. In Weimar Germany, legislative policies sought to eliminate Gypsies through bringing them inside of the law. The contradiction between increasingly racialized notion of Gypsy inassimilability and forced assimilation’s inevitable failures certainly laid the groundwork for extreme measures in both places during WWII.

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