Auschwitz as Nomos of Modern Legal Thought

Tawia B. Ansah, New England School of Law

Abstract

The article is at the intersection of law, philosophy, and political theology. I ask: in what sense is Auschwitz “central” to philosophy within late modernity? What does this centrality suggest for juridical thought? The article explores the status of the camp – as “paradigm” and as “nomos” of late modernity – within the work of the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, the reasons this status is refused by his legal critics, and the implications of both for late modern legal theory.