This volume considers the language and argument of Walter Benjamin’s 1921 essay “Toward a Critique of Violence,” as well as its contemporary relevance to the problem of legal violence. It represents the collective work of a group of international scholars who met in Rijeka, Croatia, in June 2018 to discuss the complex text paragraph by paragraph, tasked with the question of how to read and understand Benjamin’s reflections on legal violence, especially in the current political context. Ranging from etymological to legal and political analysis, the articles in this volume seek to illuminate Benjamin’s essay through new modes of reading and in light of new geopolitical conditions.
Contributors: Petar Bojanic, Marc Crépon, Astrid Deuber-Mankovsky, Basak Ertür, Peter Fenves, Anne-Lise François, Dario Gentili, Julia Ng, Pablo Oyarzún, Massimo Palma, Michelle Ty