The sanction of life and death in the sovereign exception: an analysis of the institutes of vitae necisque potestas and iustitium in Giorgio Agamben

Abstract

The vastness of Giorgio Agamben (1942-) philosophical work undoubtedly finds its greatest expression in his audacious philosophical project entitled Homo sacer. Among the most notable aspects presented by the philosopher is the idea of the constitution of bare life based on the paradigm of sacredness that has its foundations in the power of life and death and in the state of sovereign exception, respectively, founded on two Roman legal institutes: vitae necisque potestas and iustitium. The objective is to analyze this paradigm of sacred life, using the aforementioned legal institutes as theoretical support, presenting them and, above all, seeking to identify how they remain strongly operative in our days. From a methodological itinerary of bibliographical review, we were able to identify that the biopolitical machine continues to produce the bare life of homo sacer, not being a remnant of archaic law, but a form of political power in contemporary times, which justifies, through the sovereign exception, the arbitrariness over sacred life, sanctioning the sentence of non-imputable execution.