ABSTRACT
This chapter will try to refute the exclusion thesis. By doing so, we hope to debunk the strongest possible justifi cation for the rule of inherent sovereign power. The critique is structured as follows. First, it challenges the exclusion thesis for its emphasis on the origins of order and its explanation of taking the inside/outside, especially land, as the necessary condition for the creation of order. Here, the critique seeks to demystify the apparent common sense and empirical aura of the exclusion thesis. Second, the refutation addresses the more philosophical aspects as it reveals the conceptual fl aws in the commonly held belief ‘no inclusion without exclusion’. Finally, we take up what is probably the deeper fl aw underlying the exclusion thesis, i.e. understanding legal order in terms of ‘unity’ and ‘oneness’. This will also tackle the special ontological status that the exclusion thesis grants to the exclusion of migrants.
