The “Question” of the Death Penalty

In this chapter, I will address the question of the death penalty in Derrida’s Death Penalty seminars: the question of the death penalty, if there is one, that is, if there is “la question de la peine de mort.” For nothing is less certain. Not only, as we will see, must we speak of the two sets of triple questions in both seminars, and not only must we speak of the transformation or mutation of the question of the death penalty from one seminar to the other (in The Death Penalty, Volume I, the question of the death penalty is