Abstract
This essay is based on two articles: - Carolyn Nordstrom (2004): Invisible Empires, in: Bruce Kapferer (ed.) State, Sovereignty, War - Janet Roitman (2004): Productivity in the Margins: The Reconstitution of State Power in the Chad Basin, in Das and Poole: Anthropology in the Margins of the State. These articles give us a really interesting overview of different visions of illegal activities and organizations. They aim to establish a new distinction between ''legal'' and ''licit'' in order to have a different position about their consequences. To do so, it provides us with necessary precisions on what are illicit flows and illegal organizations.
