“EMPIRE STATE OF MIND” DECONSTRUCTING PROPERTY AND SOVEREIGNTY IN THE COLONIAL CONTEXT

Giacomo Capuzzo

Abstract


Drawing from Koskenniemi’s idea of Law as a discourse aimed at persuading individuals to behave in a determined way, this paper will deconstruct Law as a biopolitical mechanism designed to capture, control and transform the reproduction of life within a social body. In this sense, Law affects the multiplicity of force relations among different individuals and groups that constitute society, it may intervene within social conflicts calling winners and losers, but it also impacts on the processes of knowledge production that characterized a particular social, cultural and political context. According to this critique, a specific legal model is not just a set of formal rules about property or contracts, rather it is a mix of legal arguments and technicalities elaborated to frame, structure and re-shape the way in which life is socially and politically organized, perceived and represented in a given legal system.

 


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Department of Law - University of Perugia
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Comparative Law Review is registered at the Courthouse of Monza (Italy) - Nr. 1988 - May, 10th 2010.
Editors - Prof. Giovanni Marini, Prof. Pier Giuseppe Monateri, Prof. Tommaso Edoardo Frosini, Prof. Salvatore Sica, Prof. Alessandro Somma, Prof. Giuseppe Franco Ferrari, Prof. Massimiliano Granieri.

Direttore responsabile:Alessandro Somma