Absolute Power: Law, Sovereignty, Absolution

Abstract

Bodin’s notoriety in political theory rests upon his thesis that sovereignty is an ‘absolute power’. This chapter investigates the function of absolute power in Bodin’s theory of legislation as a sovereign authority’s negative power to unmake positive law and, consequently, release [absolvere] subjects from the bond of legal obligation. Drawing upon canonistic jurisprudence concerning papal plenitude of power, the chapter explores how Bodin modelled absolute power on the priestly power of absolution [potestas absolvendi]. Just as priests are empowered to absolve and release sinners from the bond of sin, so too are sovereigns empowered to absolve and release subjects from the bond of positive legislation, whether by full abrogation or by partial derogation. Every independent legal system, Bodin argues, must have absolute power if it is to have the reflexive capacity to correct or even repeal its own laws, especially unjust laws. Absolute power, thus, is the sovereign’s ultimate instrument of equity.