Invention of the Death Penalty: Abolitionism at its Limits

Abstract

This essay seeks to account for Derrida's striking claims towards the end of The Death Penalty, Volume I concerning the survivability of the death penalty. Why will the death penalty live on, even beyond its end? How should we understand this claim? And what are the implications of the death penalty's survival for any attempt to continue Derrida's on-going efforts to deconstruct sovereignty in the name of what he often calls ‘the unconditional’? I suggest that the survivability of the death penalty is a crucial element in Derrida's attempt to articulate a different abolitionism, an abolitionism that has parted ways with all certainty concerning the death penalty's ‘end’.