ABSTRACT
Michel Foucault argues that new techniques of government that developed in the modern period were distinct from the traditional juridical forms of sovereignty. This chapter examines the key terms of discipline and biopower, and their place in the complex of techniques that Foucault called 'governmentality'. It looks at the concept of power in Foucault's work before addressing the question of how his work can contribute to understanding of law in modern society. Foucault sets out two models of political power: the pre-modern, or classical, model of juridical power, and the modern normalising power. Where discipline works on the individual, 'biopower' is aimed at the administration and production of life. Foucault is making two claims about the law. First, that with the development of governmentality the law is transformed by normalising power. Second, that the basis of sovereignty, which before the modern period was constituted in juridical terms, requires to be rethought.
