The Mutilated Sovereignty. Considerations on a Post-Foucauldian Experience

Abstract

The article aims at describing an alternative way to the Foucaldian escape of sovereignty. According to Foucault the only chance to reach this goal is to “go beyond” this concept as well as of linked concepts such as “law” and “institution”. On the one hand this vision is affected by the erroneous identification of law with the order of the sovereign, while the original private dimension of law is totally neglected. On the other hand, Foucault cannot assume that it is also possible to delegitimize sovereignty with the very tools of law, namely in a trial. The article deals with the case of the «mutilated sovereignty» of the Italian State which has been acknowledged by a court in 2006. The government has been compensated for the damages suffered by the State because of the illegal activity in a region. The sovereignty has been “estimated”. But estimating something unquantifiable like sovereignty is destroying its symbolic force.