Critiquing Sovereign Violence: Law, Biopolitics, Bio-Juridicalism - Softcover

Rae, Gavin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1474445292 ISBN 13: 9781474445290

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2021

Synopsis

Gavin Rae offers an original approach to sovereign violence by looking at a wide range of thinkers, which he organises into three models. Benjamin, Schmitt, Arendt, Deleuze and Guattari form the radical-juridical perspective; Foucault and Agamben the biopolitical; Derrida the bio-juridical – which Rae argues produces the most nuanced account. Rae engages with new translations of 'The Beast and the Sovereign' and 'The Death Penalty' to show that Derrida offers a radical and alternative angle in which violence is placed between law and life, simultaneously creating and regulating each through the other.

About this title

About the Author

Gavin Rae is Associate Professor (accredited to Professor) in the Department of Logic and Theoretical Philosophy at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. His research interests lie in nineteenth and twentieth century European philosophy, where he works at the intersection of socio-political philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, ontology, and ethics. Besides over sixty published articles and book chapters, he is the author of eight monographs, the most recent of which are The Politics of Reason: A Postfoundational Approach (Edinburgh University Press, 2026), Questioning Sexuality: From Psychoanalysis to Gender Theory and Beyond (Edinburgh University Press, 2024), and Poststructuralist Agency: The Subject in Twentieth Century Theory (Edinburgh University Press, 2020). He has also co-edited six volumes, the most recent of which are Subjective Agency and Poststructuralism (Routledge, 2025―with Cillian Ó Fathaigh), Philosophy across Borders (Routledge, 2025―with Emma Ingala), and Historical Traces and Future Pathways of Poststructuralism: Aesthetics, Ethics, Politics (Routledge, 2021―with Emma Ingala).

From the Back Cover

A unique angle on the topic of sovereignty and violence Sovereign violence is a dominant issue in contemporary political theory and has attracted much attention from proponents of biopolitics, critical theory, deconstruction and post-structuralism. Gavin Rae offers an original approach to the topic by looking at a wide range of thinkers which he organises into three models. Benjamin, Schmitt, Arendt, Deleuze and Guattari form the radical-juridical perspective, Foucault and Agamben are biopolitical and Derrida is bio-juridical. Gavin Rae offers an original approach to the topic by looking at a wide range of thinkers which he organises into three models: the radical-juridical perspective (Benjamin, Schmitt, Arendt, Deleuze and Guattari); biopolitical (Foucault and Agamben); and bio-juridical (Derrida). Rae engages with new translations of Derrida's late seminars on The Beast and the Sovereign as well as The Death Penalty to show that Derrida offers a radical and alternative angle in which violence is placed between law and life, simultaneously creating and regulating each through the other. Gavin Rae is Conex Marie Sklodowska-Curie Experienced Research Fellow at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain.

Edition details

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1474445292
• ISBN 13: 9781474445290
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232