Year: 2010
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: robert cribb A system of exemptions Historicizing state illegality in IndonesiaIf Weber had been thinking of law rather than violence when he addressed the University of Munich in 1918, he might well have described the state as 'a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the right to determine what is legal and illegal within a given territory'. 1 Although it is commonplace to say that the power of the state ultimately rests on violence, it might plausibly be argued that the creation and administration of law is more central to the nature of the state even than control of violence.The right to determine what is legal and illegal is a complex attribute, including the right to declare law, the right to investigate (suspected) breaches of the law, the right to determine guilt and the right to punish.Whereas some of these rights may be claimed (successfully) by other sections of society, only the state possesses the full range of these powers over legality and illegality.Indeed, so closely entwined are the concepts of state and law that a state which makes no claim to administer law is probably not to be regarded as a state at all. 2 Classic conceptions of law interpret this right to determine legality and illegality in terms of the state's presumed capacity to translate the general interests of society into a legal system.According to Williams (1994:11), for instance, crime is:1 Weber, of course, actually referred to the state's 'monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force'; see Max Weber, 'Politik als Beruf', ('Politics as a vocation'), Gesammelte politische Schriften (München, l921), pp.396-450.
Source: BRILL eBooks
Author: Robert Cribb
Language: English
Topic: Asian Studies and History
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W607260884