ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author attempts to find a category deeper than exception – conflation – that accounts for the structural paradoxes of Agamben’s thought, such as the tension between apparent temporal universality of his theory and its effective confinement to modernity. He investigates the nature of modern sovereignty with the aim of extrapolating Agamben’s thought. The adaptation of state-centred reflection on the law, sovereignty and exception to this domain demands deeper reformulation of the Homo sacer perspective and, as such, attracts few theorists. However, this does not have to be the case, given that the position of exception is linked to the essence of language in which all law – including international law – is expressed. In order to confront the thought-provoking absence of international law in Agamben’s work, one need first to scrutinise the foundations of his intellectual edifice in order to understand why it is so firmly riveted to the state-centred and sub-sovereign vision of the law.
