Self-Evidence: On the Declaration of Independence and the Rule of Law

This paper explores the relationships between law, liberty, and security in the context of United States governance and its self-articulation. By reading the Declaration of Independence through the lenses of political theology, legal theory, Black Studies, and Indigenous Studies, this paper interrogates the “givenness” of the law in national discourse and what this default way of organizing thought and social life might have to do with questions of empire and/as faith.