Laws of Empire

Abstract

The central characters in Hardt and Negri'sinfluential Empire are a globalized``empire'' and the revolutionary ``multitude''opposing yet constituting it. Althoughinstantiated as substantial and achieved, whenclosely observed, Empire and the multitudebecome insubstantial and unachieved. Thesecontrary qualities can be combined in law. Somesuch resolution is signalled by the largeinitial emphasis which the work places on lawas the existential expression of Empire. Yetlaw plays at best a peripheral and fitful partin the rest of Empire. There is a blockon the uninhibited resort to a law which wouldcombine the contrary qualities and this blockis the monism infusing the multitude and thencethe Empire it constitutes. Nonetheless, thatlaw is sufficiently present in the work, notonly to counter and substitute for itsimpossible monism, but also to accentuate thesignificance of law in modern arrogations ofthe ``global'' – as the little exercise whichnow follows will reveal.