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REFLECTIONS ON THE LIMITS OF LAW

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2016

Saba Mahmood
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Extract

To write a review essay about three books on what at first glance appear to be very divergent topics may seem like an impossible task. Samera Esmeir's book, Juridical Humanity, is an exploration of colonial law as it conscripted Egyptians into the grid of humanity; Judith Butler's Parting Ways is a critique of Zionism and state violence from a Jewish perspective; and Hussein Agrama's Questioning Secularism is about the paradoxical nature of secular power as manifest in modern Egypt. Despite this divergence, I found a rich thematic resonance between the three books that was unexpected and illuminating. All three books are deep meditations on the nature of law, its violent and performative character, even as they are also about a lot more. In what follows, I discuss the central themes of each book with a short rumination on their shared themes.

Type
Review Article
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 157 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

NOTE

1 As Butler puts it, “There are of course, many excellent arguments for opposing political Zionism, establishing a polity on grounds of equality for Palestinians and Jews on the land of historic Palestine, for opposing racist forms of citizenship within the borders of Israel, for stopping and reversing decades of land confiscation and colonial settlement by the Israeli state, supporting Palestinian self-determination, and opposing the brutal use of police and military force to maintain an illegal occupation.” Butler, Parting Ways, 18.