In resent years essayist and cultural critic Walter Benjamin has enjoyed an increased interest by intellectuals and academics. Benjamin’s texts has for many taken the form of a starting point from which to launch a discussion on contemporary political problems such as that of state violence, sovereignty and law. In this thesis I focus on the specific readings of Walter Benjamin’s famous essay ”On the Critique of Violence” and his “Theses on the Philosopfy of History” done by Judith Butler and Giorgio Agamben. In this essay I aim to show in what way the two contemporary writers interpret, use and incorporate Benjamin’s thinking into their own, and the impact it has on their thinking. I argue that Benjamin’s thoughts on violence, law and history has fundamental implications for Agamben and Butler but in very different ways. I hope to show in how many ways Benjamin’s more than ninety years old text can help us understand and criticize the present. Not as a historical document but as philosophical blasting cap. To better understand how Benjamin’s legacy is treated in the contemporary debate is to better understand political philosophy of today
