The concept of the exception has garnered increasing notice from scholars, where it has been used to denote the outer limits, and yet most absolute embodiment, of sovereign rule. However, the concept and its relevance to law and governance in specific contexts remain underdeveloped. Drawing on detailed studies of two domains – financial and urban governance – where the importance of the exception is evident yet unrecognized, we argue that this concept provides a valuable analytic for thinking through, not the vicissitudes of sovereign rule, but rather the internal logics, possibilities, and limits of governmental programmes and the place of law therein. We use these empirical forays to develop the concept of the exception as a technicality of governance that bears critical implications for the nature, shape, and effects of governmental programmes.
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