Jeanne Marie Gagnebin and Walter Benjamin’s critique of Law

Abstract

Among the production of the philosopher Jeanne Marie Gagnebin dedicated to Walter Benjamin’s thought, there are two texts in which Gagnebin seems to work more directly with Benjamin’s reflections on law: “Myth, Law and Justice in Walter Benjamin” and “State of exception: Between catastrophe and necropolitics”. These texts discuss the theoretical-political and historical foundations of the critique of Law made by the German philosopher. This article intends to realize a brief comment on these texts; and also to indicate, based on these texts and other moments in her work, that how Gagnebin interprets Walter Benjamin's philosophy of history brings us important elements for the task (still unfinished) to build a critical perception on law and especially on the historical regime underlying it. Based on this proposal, this article is divided into 3 parts. The first aims to comment the essays previously mentioned; the second to differentiate the reading suggested by Gagnebin from some influential interpretations of Walter Benjamin's work in theory and philosophy of law; and the third to discuss how the interpretation proposed by the Swiss-Brazilian thinker of Benjamin's texts on law is based in a more integrated reading of the historical criticism proposed by the German philosopher.