Abdicatio iuris: Giorgio Agamben and the inappropriateness of landscape

Abstract

The article discusses the relationship between justice and inappropriability in Agamben's work and extends his reflection on landscape to the domains of vegetality. The reason for this choice is that, contrary to other topics in his work such as nuda vida, language or political theology, landscape has not received the philosophical-political discussion it deserves. Therefore, the article is divided into three parts. The first part argues the necessity of abdicating law in order to understand inappropriability as a condition of justice. The second part establishes landscape within the framework of inappropriability and problematizes its importance outside an aesthetic and juridical horizon. The third part postulates, on the basis of some of Agamben's arguments, a notion of vegetal justice as an extension of his thesis on inappropriability in the framework of the plurality of non-human life forms. The conclusion is that justice depends on the inappropriability for its realization to the extent that justice is neither an ethical virtue nor an institutional program: it constitutes an experience in the world that can be apprehended with greater clarity through the landscape.