Revolt and Solidarity Beyond Rights: A Camusian Ethics in Times of Crisis

Abstract

In times of crisis, the law often devolves into managerial administration, suspending rights and reducing subjects to bare life. This essay argues that Albert Camus’s philosophy of revolt offers a critical ethical resource for reimagining justice and solidarity when juridical frameworks fail. By placing Camus in dialogue with Giorgio Agamben’s theory of the state of exception, we propose a framework for solidarity as horizontal justice. Rather than displacing rights, this conception of solidarity identifies the ethical conditions under which rights retain force when legal protections are suspended or hollowed out. It generates binding norms through mutual vulnerability, limitation, and shared responsibility. We contend that Camusian ethics provides a necessary counter-jurisprudence capable of re-politicizing justice in response to technocratic abandonment.