Gavin Rae,Critiquing Sovereign Violence. Law, Biopolitics, Bio-Juridicalism Edinburgh University Press, 2019
Critiques the historically dominant classic–juridical model of sovereign violence and defends a bio-juridical model instead
- Works across the disciplines of critical theory, political theory, biopolitical theory, poststructuralism and deconstruction
- Develops three models – radical-juridical, biopolitical, and bio-juridical – to understand contemporary debates
- Situates current thinking in relation to the classic–juridical model, thereby linking contemporary debates to historical ones
- Moves beyond the dominant biopolitical model to a bio-juridical paradigm
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.
