Anyway, I think we should keep it in mind that even if it is true that ra£Son d'Etat formulated and manifested as the police state, embodied in the police state, has unlimited objectives, it is also the case that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there are constant attempts to limit ra£Son d'Etat, and the principle or reason of this limitation is found in juridical reason. But you can see that it is an external limitation. Moreover, the jurists are fully aware that their question oflaw is extrinsic to ra£Son d'Etat insofar as this is precisely that which exceeds the legal domain.

Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, loc. 175