The state of emergency presents an array of problems for the protection of human rights. Foucault’s biopolitics and Agamben’s concept of the state of exception have been instrumental in the formulation of analyses which seek to understand the full extent of this area of tension. However, there is scope for the study of the state of emergency in a theoretical context which situates this mechanism within the broader scheme of human rights. In drawing upon these spheres of study and taking a distinctly theoretical approach to the research problem, the aim of this paper is to reappraise the ways in which commonly cited theories are applied.