The end of law and other miracles

Abstract

This article explores various attempts to critique law with reference to an authority or idea that is seen as transcending law in its existing forms. As heuristic tools, I use a distinction between prophetic and apocalyptic discourses, the former referring to discourses that remain sceptical to the possibility of suspending law in any absolute sense; the latter describing discourses that articulate a belief in or commitment to a radical break with the law, envisioning a coming law-free age. To give concreteness to my argument, I focus, in the first part, on the critical interaction between Daniel Bensaïd and Alain Badiou as a typical illustration of the tension between prophetic and apocalyptic discourses. In the subsequent parts, I take the analysis a step further by relating it to various historical discourses on divine law. Drawing on Christine Hayes’ claim that there are overlooked resources in the ancient rabbinic constructions of divine law, I suggest that some of these resources are reactivated – albeit unknowingly – in Bensaïd’s political thinking. Especially in his original conception of revolutionary temporality, Bensaïd provides tools for elaborating a different way of coping with the limits of law, thereby avoiding some of the shortcomings of apocalyptic political theologies.