States of Exception or Exceptional States: Law, Politics and Giorgio Agamben in the Middle East

This book explores the application of the work of the philosopher Giorgio Agamben to the post-Arab Uprisings in the Middle East, considering the evolution of regime-society relations that ultimately erupted in violence in the early months of 2011.
Agamben’s ideas of the state of exception and bare life provide important intellectual tools to understand the nature of sovereignty and the regulation of life, which has largely been missing in the study of the region. Filling a theoretical and empirical gap by exploring the concept of the ’state of exception’ via a multidisciplinary approach, Simon Mabon, Sanaa Alsarghali and contributors in the fields of political science, law and philosophy offer a unique set of perspectives analysing how politics and law combine to facilitate the misuse of executive powers.

Simon Mabon is Professor of International Politics at Lancaster University, UK, where he directs SEPAD and the Richardson Institute.

Sanaa Alsarghali is Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at An-Najaj National University, Palestine, where she is the Director of the Constitutional Studies Center.

Adel Ruished is PhD Researcher in Politics and International Relations in the Department of Philosophy, Politics and Religion, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Lancaster University, UK.