Legalisierung des Natürlichen: Subjektives Recht und Gewalt ('Subjective Right' and Power/Violence)

Abstract

English Abstract: 
According to Walter Benjamin, law (German "Recht") and power/violence (German: "Gewalt") are inextricably connected and rooted in identical structures. Does this statement hold true for the law/Recht in its "subjective" dimension, that is: "subjektives Recht", usually translated as "rights"? This chapter, a contribution to a colloquium on Christoph Menke's book "Critique of Rights", retells the history of "subjective rights" as a history of power, domination, sovereignty, and violence.

Note: Downloadable document is in German.

Keywords: Agamben, Benjamin, Bodin, filmer, legal history, legal theory, Menke, natural law, potestas, rights, Roman law, Schmitt, sovereignty

JEL Classification: K00, K10, K40, K49