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State of Exception

(Homo Sacer #II.1)

Giorgio Agamben,

Kevin Attell (Translator)

4.06 · Rating details · 1,468 ratings · 124 reviews

Two months after the attacks of 9/11, the Bush administration, in the midst of what it perceived to be a state of emergency, authorized the indefinite detention of noncitizens suspected of terrorist activities and their subsequent trials by a military commission. Here, distinguished Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben uses such circumstances to argue that this unusual ...more

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Paperback, 104 pages

Published January 15th 2005 by University of Chicago Press (first published 2003)

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Jul 15, 2015 sologdin rated it really liked it

Shelves: law, ancient, dilectio-sapientiae, leftwing-theory, fascists-wtf, wurstchen, us-empire, agambeneficence

24 August 2019 - am again re-urging this because of the president's suggestion that he can halt international commerce via the state of exception:

For all of the Fake News Reporters that don't have a clue as to what the law is relative to Presidential powers, China, etc., try looking at the Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. Case closed!

His legal interpretation is not in accord with Youngstown Sheet and Tube, but that is a question for the judiciary, which he has stacked with pliable ...more

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Jan 07, 2014 Sara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: empire

The machine that will lead to global civil war

[Through my ratings, reviews and edits I'm providing intellectual property and labor to Amazon.com Inc., listed on Nasdaq, which fully owns Goodreads.com and in 2013 posted revenues for $74 billion and $274 million profits. Intellectual property and labor require compensation. Amazon.com Inc. is also requested to provide assurance that its employees and contractors' work conditions meet the highest health and safety standards at all the company's The machine that will lead to global civil war

[Through my ratings, reviews and edits I'm providing intellectual property and labor to Amazon.com Inc., listed on Nasdaq, which fully owns Goodreads.com and in 2013 posted revenues for $74 billion and $274 million profits. Intellectual property and labor require compensation. Amazon.com Inc. is also requested to provide assurance that its employees and contractors' work conditions meet the highest health and safety standards at all the company's sites.]

This book can be hardly understood outside the continental tradition of code law, and it makes no attempt at an archaeology of common law - where for example there's no decision-norm cleavage, as Entscheidung (Schmitt and Benjamin's 'decision' ) is exactly what generates law. From a common law perspective the essay might thus appear as a sequence of absurdities, but in its painstaking investigation of long forgotten diatribes and lost constitutions it has the merit to unearth the root meaning of a few relevant political phenomena, casting a new, not necessarily depressing light on them.

The book begins asking "what is political action?" and ends answering that "truly political is only that action, which cuts the nexus between violence and law". And violence and war are conceptually - even if sometimes not explicitly - at the center of the complicated to and fro between ancient texts and present times. Tumultus (uprising in Latin) is the core archaeological finding on which the whole theory of the state of exception, or suspension of law, hinges. This attention to civil war as the trigger to reactions that hollow out constitutions and institutions without ever abolishing them can be usefully transferred from the study of the borderline device of the state of exception to the heart of what we call democracy (by no means is this word used in the book - I'm referencing it at my own risk).

A generalization of tumultus from a democratic perspective is internal conflict. On a continuum from cosmos to chaos , i.e. from order and harmony to disorder and aggression, democracy is always half-way in its appearence and totally bent over chaos in its substance. There should be nothing surprising to this: a myriad of constituencies advancing their own agendas is just mess. And something to be happy about, if your power ends with your ballot. But if the idea of an "excess of democracy", as Samuel P. Huntington put it, gets traction, then tumultus can become the new name of democracy and the state of exception easily invoked and granted. Which is exactly what happens on a regular basis. It has to be clear that the target of all states of exception is democracy itself, or "the enemy within" in the words of Margaret Thatcher, especially when officially specific constituencies are singled out or external enemies and crises blamed. It is through a suspension of the intricacies of democracy that elites can then start thinking of global expansions, focusing their ambitions externally once the internal tumultus has been taken care of. This is why the author can conclude that the mechanism of the state of exception will eventually lead to global civil war.

Finally, what does it mean to undo the nexus between violence and law, or to open a space between the two where truly political action can unfold? Law is said to have been established ne cives ad arma ruant , i.e. so that the citizens not rush to arms. We should start thinking that there is no mechanism - be it law, or its suspension, whether codified in rites, traditions, religions or modern law codes - that can prevent conflict from playing out in our democratic societies. It is only by playing with conflict - and with law consequently - without fear (which is the opposite of violence) that political action can come of age. ...more

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Jan 18, 2015 Alexander rated it really liked it

Giorgio Agamben's State of Exception continues down a path laid down by its exceptional precursor, Homo Sacer. While Homo Sacer's focus was on the nature of sovereignty and its increasing implication in the sphere of biological life, in State of Exception, Agamben turns his gaze directly towards the question of law and its relationship to power. And I really do mean law. Anyone expecting the colorful procession of anthropological discussions that adorned the pages of Homo Sacer will instead find Giorgio Agamben's State of Exception continues down a path laid down by its exceptional precursor, Homo Sacer. While Homo Sacer's focus was on the nature of sovereignty and its increasing implication in the sphere of biological life, in State of Exception, Agamben turns his gaze directly towards the question of law and its relationship to power. And I really do mean law. Anyone expecting the colorful procession of anthropological discussions that adorned the pages of Homo Sacer will instead find themselves knee-deep in some incredibly dense interventions into debates on the nature and limits of law. Thus, although Agamben's usual cast of interlocutors are still present - Benjamin, Schmitt, Derrida, Arendt - more often than not, it's with little-known legal scholars and jurists with whom Agamben engages. In the hands of a lesser stylist, it could come off as vaunting; in the hands of Agamben, one feels the irresistible temptation to head to the library and devour each and every one of his references.

For a philosophile like myself, unused to the arcana of juridical discussion, it's uncharted territory, which makes State of Exception's slim ninety pages anything but a breezy read. For all that though, the effort is worth it. The central axis around which Agamben organizes his investigation is that of the relation between law and its own exception. Which is to ask: what happens when law authorizes its own suspension? Recall - to use of one Agamben's examples - the notorious Article 48 of the Weimar constitution which, when invoked, suspended certain fundamental rights guaranteed by that very constitution itself. Such a situation places the law in a 'state of exception' with itself: law suspends law, all the while nonetheless remaining in force. This paradoxical situation - the history of which is meticulously traced out by Agamben - gives rise to law emptied of any positive content, while nonetheless retaining its form. For Agamben, this zone of indeterminate law renders the entire juridical order into nothing less than a 'killing machine', whose end result can only lead towards "global civil war".

Just how and why this is so is best left to a reading of the book itself, but as with Homo Sacer, State of Exception implores us to find a way to 'stop the machine', to 'depose' of it, to use the term invoked by Benjamin and taken up by Agamben. In laying out the obscure logic that governs the state of exception (or rather, that the state of exception governs), Agamben's contribution is not so much a way forward as it is an attempt to illuminate what exactly it is we're to find our way forward from. Much of the book is given over to Agamben refuting various attempts to pacify, downplay, or ambiguate the stringent logic of the state of exception, an enterprise he takes up with with both delicacy and ferociousness. Indeed, the crowing jewel of the book is a chapter which finds Agamben playing mediator to a fascinating debate between the works of Walter Benjamin and Carl Schmitt, with Agamben tracing the parries and blows of each in brilliant detail (unsurprisingly for those familiar with Agamben, Benjamin comes out on top). More than just a tour de force of intellectual and historical scholarship, it's a debate which elegantly encapsulates all that's at stake in Agamben's overarching project. Of course if you want to see it play out, you'll have to read the book. ...more

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Mar 17, 2020 Michal Lipták rated it it was ok

Mostly Homo sacer copypasta that through its prolonged (though not uninteresting) historical and philological investigations basically elliptically returns Benjamin's thesis of "pure violence" in Critique of Violence - a text you will more benefit from reading.

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Jun 18, 2012 Uuu Ooo Bbb added it

Agamben details the concept of the state of exception as the state in which the rule law is not voided or the law itself changed to allow for absolute rule, but rather the law is suspended. He claims it's a way of enacting de-facto dictatorship specific to Western democracies. His examples are Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy as well as France, Switzerland, Great Britain and the USA.

For those who believe in liberal democracy, the numerous examples of it's easily slippage into dictatorship should be ...more

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Dec 10, 2018 Rob Trump rated it liked it

Haven't read much legal philosophy, a little more political philosophy but still not much. Certainly haven't read any Schmitt or Benjamin, who seem to be the main touchstones here. In any case: very readable, pretty entertaining, and frequently insightful.

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Apr 07, 2019 Koleś rated it really liked it

Some short quote from the book that I would like to remember:

In modern public law theory, it is a customary to define as dictatorships the totalitarian states born out of the crisis the democracies underwent after World War One. Thus Hitler as well as Mussolini, Franco as well as Stalin, get indifferently presented as dictators. But neither Hitler nor Mussolini can technically be defined as dictators. Mussolini was the head of the government, legally invested with this office by the king, just

Some short quote from the book that I would like to remember:

In modern public law theory, it is a customary to define as dictatorships the totalitarian states born out of the crisis the democracies underwent after World War One. Thus Hitler as well as Mussolini, Franco as well as Stalin, get indifferently presented as dictators. But neither Hitler nor Mussolini can technically be defined as dictators. Mussolini was the head of the government, legally invested with this office by the king, just as Hitler was chancellor of the Reich, named by the legitimate president of the Reich. As is well known, what characterizes both the Fascist and Nazi regimes is that they allowed the existing constitutions (the Albertine Statute and the Weimar Constitution, respectively) to subsist, and according to a paradigm that has been acutely defined as "dual state" - they placed beside the legal constitution a second structure, often not legally formalized, that could exist alongside the other because of the state of exception.

And also this summary:

[...]conclusions from out investigation of the state of exception. The juridicial system of the West appears as a double structure, formed by two heterogenous yet coordinated elements: one that is normative and juridicial in the strict sense (which we can for convenience inscribe under the rubric potestas) and one that is anomic and metajuridicial (which we can call by the name auctoritas). The normative elements needs the anomic element in order to be applied, but, on the other hand, auctoritas can assert itself only in the validation or suspension of potestas. Because it results from the dialectic between these two somewhat antagonistic yet functionally connected elements, the ancienct dwelling of law is fragile and, in straining to maintain its own order, is always already in the process of ruin and decay. The state of exception is the device that must ultimately articulate and hold together the two aspects of the juridico-political machine by instituting a threshold of undecidability between anomie and nomos, between life and law, between auctoritas and potestas. It is founded on the essential fiction according to which anomie (in the form of auctoritas, living law, of the force of law) is still related to the juridical order and the power to suspend the norm has an immediate hold on life. As long as the two elements remain correlated yet conceptually, temporally, and subjectively distinct (as in republican Rome's contrast between the Sentae and the people, or in medieval Europe's contrast between spiritual and temporal powers) their dialectic - though founded on a fiction - can nevertheless function in some way. But when they tend to coincide in a single person, when the state of exception, in which they are bound and blurred together, becomes the rule, then the juridico-political system transforms itself into a killing machine.

...more

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Mar 25, 2019 Forrest Kentwell rated it really liked it

Agambens concise book, The State of Exception seems to summarize much of Agambens previous work along with providing lengthy examples of this concept (88 pages). In my understanding, the state of exception is when the leader of a nation (often referred to as the sovereign) has the ability to suspend the law for a certain category of people, and in suspending the law, can act towards those exceptional peoples with full power outside the law. A perfect modern example of this in the United States Agamben’s concise book, “The State of Exception” seems to summarize much of Agamben’s previous work along with providing lengthy examples of this concept (88 pages). In my understanding, the state of exception is when the leader of a nation (often referred to as the sovereign) has the ability to suspend the law for a certain category of people, and in suspending the law, can act towards those ‘exceptional’ peoples with full power outside the law. A perfect modern example of this in the United States is the separation of families and the caging of children (or the "Declared National Emergency" in the US regarding migrants and the 'Southern Border' -- these are states of exception. All of this is technically outside of the law and thus the united states government cannot be held accountable by the UN for violating the Law. According to Agamben, the state of exception is a strange, liminal space, almost like a void, between political and judicial spheres. There are two categories of people within the state of exception. First is the creator of the state of exception, the sovereign, the powerful political figure. In many cases this state of exception is affirmed by the judicial sphere, which Agamben notes is paradoxical, because the branch of government that watches and checks laws is approving a space that is outside the law, affirming a place they cannot go. The courts then limit themselves and give further power of force outside the law to the sovereign. The sovereign then applies this force upon those categorically created as the state of exception. This can be Jewish people in Nazi Germany to habeas corpus in the U.S. during Lincoln to migrant or refugee groups entering Europe right now. All of these instances share an exceptional moment where people are not dealt with inside of the law and an authoritarian-totalitarian position is created by the leader of Y-nation for themselves to be more powerful (exempt) from judicial checks/balances. Agamben shows, quite convincingly I think, that this state of exception is slowly becoming the rule rather than the exception. It must be kept in mind that Agamben writes this in 2005, which makes him a fascinating predictor of the future, as the rise of fascism around the Atlantic triangle is reaching towards high tide. Highly recommend as both an introduction to Agamben’s writing and an insight into how western democratic governments are prone and primed towards fascism. After reading this, I believe understanding Agamben’s outline of the state of exception can help activists and politicians alike in better grasping and battling against fascism in the coming years.
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Mar 12, 2015 Jacob Lines rated it really liked it

Shelves: law

This book surprised me. I didnt expect to enjoy it like I did. When I found this book, I figured that I would have to slog through it but I would learn something worthwhile. I was right about learning something but wrong about slogging. The book was a very enjoyable read. Not that it was easy I had to keep a piece of paper for writing down words to look up but the reward of reading it was proportionate to the work of reading it.

Agamben is known for his work on Homo Sacer the obscure sacred ...more

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Jan 24, 2018 Jacob rated it it was amazing

Agamben skillfully shows the history of the State of Exception which he describes as "a no-man's land between public law and political fact" (1). It exists in the space that contradicts or defies the law, sitting outside of its grasp. The State of Exception often comes about during war times, when the law is put to the side for the good of the people. The law breaks from the norm in order to save the norm. In terms of something like human rights of the citizen, these are, for the time being, put ...more

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Nov 16, 2019 Kevin Fitzpatrick added it

Erudite, wide-ranging, objective in tone, historically resonant, and passionately dispassionate (as all good philosophy should be), Giorgio Agamben's "State of Exception" touches upon concepts immediately relevant to the headlines of our troubled times (9/11, extreme rendition, Guantanamo). By exploring the slippery, liminal territory that exists between constitutional suspension ("anomie," or normlessness) and the norms of law, Agamben gives much needed philosophical heft to our understanding ...more

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Nov 20, 2017 Joeri rated it really liked it

Shelves: thesis

This short book of Agamben can help us become sensitive and critical for incurrences of states of exception: a state where the law is suspended by the soevereign in order to become a killing machine or to forcefully push through certain measurements, be they social, political or economic. It reminds us that whenever a sovereign, i.e. a politician or other executives, call of a situation of emergency and state that certain measures are necessary, we must be aware that this seemingly founding of a ...more

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Mar 05, 2020 Yang rated it really liked it

Shelves: philosophy

Somehow I was imagining Agamben to be a difficult writer, but it turns out he has a pretty straight-forward writing style. But his erudition certainly prevents one from smooth reading. Probably general readers can have an easier way around with editors' notes that sort of references. He has a capacity to cut through the heart of an issue -- making Schmit, Benjamin, and Arendt's projects immediately relevant.

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Nov 04, 2019 Carla Tv. rated it liked it

"In this sense, modern totalitarianism can be defined as the establishment, by means of the state of exception, of a legal civil war that allows for the physical elimination not only of political adversaries but of entire categories of citizens who for some reason cannot be integrated into the political system"

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Oct 16, 2019 Paul rated it it was amazing

Not a walk across a field. I am surprised how many of my friends in anthropology, usually far afield, find wisdom in legal practices of ancient Rome.

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May 09, 2020 Janice Feng added it

Why?

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Apr 20, 2019 Ricky rated it it was amazing

Shelves: critical-theory, intellectual-history, agamben, thesis

you've heard about the state of exception but look at the state of my fucking reading list

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Jan 23, 2019 Kevin Q rated it it was amazing

Seminal work.

Very short.

Good philosophy reading, but unfortunately a neoliberal screed that asks for us to keep allowing the worst humans on the planet to have positions of authority.

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Jul 11, 2010 Lars Lofgren rated it liked it

Giorgio Agamben provides a thorough historical and legal contextualization of the state of exception, defining its critical nature and development. Defined as the expansion of executive power in response to existential threats to the nation, the state of exception has become the norm of executive power throughout Western democracies. Analyzing the legal and political theory that has given rise to the state of exception, Agamben delivers a highly detailed description of this legal concept. From Giorgio Agamben provides a thorough historical and legal contextualization of the state of exception, defining its critical nature and development. Defined as the expansion of executive power in response to existential threats to the nation, the state of exception has become the norm of executive power throughout Western democracies. Analyzing the legal and political theory that has given rise to the state of exception, Agamben delivers a highly detailed description of this legal concept. From its origins in Roman law, Agamben traces the evolution of the state of exception through two political scholars, Walter Benjamin and Carl Schmitt. Today, the state of exception has allowed the President of the United States to unilaterally expand executive power into legislative and judicial domains.

Response:

While the quality of Agamben's legal analysis and research cannot be questioned, he neglects to analyze the state of exception from a political science lens, specifically in terms of institutions and structural limitations. There are two primarily limitations to any utilization of the state of exception, the complexity of Western political systems and the electorate. Given the highly bureaucratic nature of any Western political system, Presidential decrees will unavoidable reach resistance within the system. Obviously, fervent nationalism (Nazi Germany) or traumatic national events (September 11) can consolidate a political regime and reduce structural resistance but this situation does not represent the norm.

Additionally, the President and his political party ultimately must answer to the electorate. Unless the President is able to subvert this process as well with the state of exception, the electorate may abandon the President in favor of a completely different candidate. The shift from a substantial support for the Bush Administration to the 2006 Democratic Congressional majority and the subsequent election of Barak Obama exemplify this. In short, further empirical evidence and analysis is required before one can emphatically claim that the state of exception has eroded the foundations of democracy and reduced Western democracies to police states.

Bottom-line:

For legal scholars or those interested in the expansion of executive power, this book provides a great deal of pertinent analysis. For the majority of readers, finding the book at a library and reading the first chapter as well as the last few pages will be more than enough. Unless the topic of this book deeply resonates with you, there are more important books to spend your money on.

For more reviews and a summary of Agamben's main paints, find us at Hand of Reason. ...more

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Sep 02, 2014 Dr. A rated it really liked it

Shelves: the-history-of-philosophy-curated

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Read this and reviews of other classics in Western Philosophy on the History page of www.BestPhilosophyBooks.org (a thinkPhilosophy Production).
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In State of Exception (the second volume in the series entitled Homo Sacer), Giorgio Agamben analyzes the way in which sovereign governments avail themselves of a states of emergency to claim extra-legal powers. As might be all to familiar to us in this historical moment, this is done in the name of protecting the public interest.

This work in ...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Mike rated it really liked it

Agamben, one of our age's most stunningly original philosophers of law, examines the expansion of executive powers under President George W. Bush following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the USA. Agamben provides a nuanced musing over the ethical reasoning behind such a move in this short book, and argues that with the exceptions of coups, dictators, and other instances of government where there is a complete and unjust imbalance of power, states may have valid ethical and legal reasons to ...more

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Nov 05, 2013 Will rated it liked it

Sometimes we wish books were longer so we could've kept reading. Rarely is a book simply too short for its own good.

Brevity is the soul of wit, I get it. But Agamben covers an incredible breadth of historical, legal and philosophical material in just 88 pages. Ridden with multilingual translations, obscure academic references and dense jargon, it's a tough read.

Such stylistic/structural criticisms aside, this is a fascinating and clearly original take on a legal trend that has steadily been ...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Eric Steere rated it really liked it

ITEM NECESSITAS LEGEM NON HABET (Necessity has no law). Agamben finds that when the law becomes the exception, in the suspension of law itself, is closely related to civil war, insurrection, and resistance. However, when employed by states (he gives the example of Weimar/Hitler Germany for example) it is a form of modern totalitarianism. This creates a legal civil war that permits even the physical destruction of adversaries and even entire categories of citizens who are not seen as able to ...more

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Nov 23, 2009 Matthew Balliro rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2009

This was the first Agamben book I've read that wasn't for a class, and I'm very glad this was the one I picked. It is very, very readable, even for Agamben beginners. Everything you'd expect to be in here is in here: bare life, potentiality, play, apparatuses, and--of course--the state of exception.

When he's at his best, Agamben writes at an absolutely perfect pace. He sets out a thesis, builds background, gives examples, and weaves his own ideas into a stunningly complex web that just seems to ...more

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Feb 18, 2011 Megana rated it really liked it

Just finished reading this in one sitting, so my thoughts are not necessarily clear- in the state of exception, law is suspended for the sake of the public good. This is justified by it's necessity. So both the law and the state of exception serve the public good, which is constituted by the law and the state of exception in relation to one another. Coming down on the wrong side of the authority which constitutes this good puts one in a tight spot, biopolitically speaking... But this ...more

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Aug 31, 2015 Rhys rated it liked it

I understood better what this book was about after reading Goodreads Sara's review on this book, and the reason why it may not have resonated with me.

It was fascinating, and there seemed to be a governing metaphor of the law emerging from the lacuna of the law. It seemed Derridean at times there is nothing outside, as every breach of the totality is totalized or Gadamers horizon, receding but encompassing. I cant put my finger on the state-of-excpetion, though.

Its not clear to me what the ...more

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Mar 15, 2016 Rallie rated it really liked it

I've read through this book twice in the past three days, and once before a few years ago. It's a book that, despite its length, takes some time to explore. While Agamben is exploring serious and frightening issues, he does not foreclose hope - his subject (the state of exception, briefly introduced in Homo Sacer) may be oppressive but he writes into the genealogy the role that revolution can play in the dissolution of the totalitarian state. I think a useful concept to introduce to this text ...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Katrinka rated it really liked it

As always with Agamben, a really interesting exploration-- here, specifically, of legal theory and the state of exception/suspension of the law that makes law possible. Wish he would have gone more into how the increasing tendency to make the state of exception the norm plays out in contemporary life-- but I might have to go back and reread Homo Sacer, the predecessor to this book, to put it all together.

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Aug 15, 2012 Jeff Swift rated it really liked it

Shelves: democratic-theory

Agamben explores the state of exception, or the moment at which a government suspends the rule of law in order to preserve itself. This state of exception was also explored in Locke, who argued that the government can, in extreme circumstances, break the law in order to save the State. Agamben points out that this power to break the law resides only in governments an individual cannot simply break the law because they feel it is necessary. ...more

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Jul 30, 2011 William West added it

This book convinced me that Agamben is THE true contemporary inheritor of the intellectual tradition of the Frankfurt School. The fourth chapter, on the Benjamin-Schmidt discourse, is extraordinary. Like Benjamin and Adorno, (and in his own way Derrida) Agamben's ultimate goal is nothing less than to seek a way of thinking that does not weigh the subject down with necessity. To judge life as worthy without being useful.

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About Giorgio Agamben

Giorgio Agamben

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Giorgio Agamben is one of the leading figures in Italian and contemporary continental philosophy. He is the author of Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life; Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive; Profanations; The Signature of All Things: On Method, and other books. Through the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s he treated a wide range of topics, including aesthetics, literature, ...more

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Homo Sacer (10 books)

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Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life

Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive

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Quotes from State of Exception

“One day humanity will play with law just as children play with disused objects, not in order to restore them to their canonical use but to free them from it for good.” — 40 likes

“مكن تعريف الشمولية الحديثة بأنها: "عملية تأسيسِ حربٍ أهلية قانونية من خلال تطبيق «حالة الاستثناء»"، بما يُتِيحُ التصفية الجسدية ليس فقط للخصوم السياسيين، بل لشرائح كاملة من المواطنين تعتبرهم السلطة، لسببٍ أو لآخر، غير قابلين للاندماج في النظام السياسي. منذ ذلك الحين، بات الخلق الطوعي لحالة طوارئ دائمة، حتى وإن كانت غير مُعلنةٍ –ربما- على الصعيد الفني للمصطلح، أحد الإجراءات الضرورية الهامة التي تلجأ إليها الدول المعاصرة، حتى تلك المُسمَّاةِ دولاً ديمقراطية” — 14 likes

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