ABSTRACT
This advanced section presents an overview of the impressive contributions made by Michel Foucault on the nature of power in modernity and his understanding of modern law. Foucault argued that the new techniques of government developed in the modern period were distinct from the traditional legal forms of political sovereignty. Foucault thought that the juridical had been displaced as a principle of power in favour of a principle of organisation he defined as “governmentality”, which constitutes both society and the individual as effects of the operation of power. This advanced section first examines the key concepts of discipline and biopower, and their place in the complex of techniques that is governmentality. Then the section addresses the concept of power in Foucault's work and how it can contribute to our understanding of law in modern society.
