The State of Exception and Limits of the Rule of Law

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-74
Author(s):  
Vojtěch Belling
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
The Rule Of Law

scholarly journals Continuities and Discontinuities: Antiziganism in Germany and Italy (1900-1938)

2020 ◽  
pp. 51-80
Author(s):  
Jennifer Illuzzi
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Weimar Germany ◽  
Executive Authority ◽  
Legislative Policies ◽  
The Law

In both Germany and Italy before WWI, populations labelled as Gypsies found themselves in a “state of exception” which aimed at their elimination from the nation-state by targeting them with policies emanating from the executive. Both states adhered to the liberal idea of equality before the law, but used the flexibility provided by executive authority to pressure Gypsies to leave the state. After WWI, both Germany and Italy were forced to retain “Gypsies” inside the state as a result of changing geopolitical circumstances. However, in fascist Italy before WWII, executive authorities continued to operate in a “state of exception” and ceased adhering to the rule of law, interning Gypsies in concentration camps and seeking to eliminate them through forced assimilation. In Weimar Germany, legislative policies sought to eliminate Gypsies through bringing them inside of the law. The contradiction between increasingly racialized notion of Gypsy inassimilability and forced assimilation’s inevitable failures certainly laid the groundwork for extreme measures in both places during WWII.

scholarly journals THE STATE OF EXCEPTION IN THE GREEK CONSTITUTION:THE RESILIENCE OF THE GREEK CONSTITUTION DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

2021 ◽  
pp. 21-31
Author(s):  
Evripidis STYLIANIDIS
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Public Health Crisis

The state of exception is provided for in constitutions in response to emergency situations. The resilience of constitutions is tested in such situations, which are marked by the concentration of power in the executive and limitations in the exercise of fundamental rights. Although the Greek Constitution allows for the declaration of a state of siege, this does not include the case of a public health crisis. Nevertheless, particular constitutional provisions form an emergency mechanism, which proved to be effective against the COVID-19 pandemic and in accordance with democracy and the rule of law.

Rule of law and state of exception: the genesis of the problem

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-54
Author(s):  
Sergiy I. Maksymov ◽  
Natalia I. Satokhina
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Weak Version ◽  
Comparison Analysis ◽  
Fundamental Idea ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Interdisciplinary Nature ◽  
Analysis And Synthesis ◽  
Law And Justice

The purpose of this study was to clarify the correlation between the concepts of the rule of law and the state of exception in the context of the question of the nature of law and its correlation with force. The relevance of the study is explained by the need to reinterpret the idea of the rule of law and its boundaries in the context of modern challenges, in particular in the context of a pandemic. The study is of an interdisciplinary nature, which lies in combining legal, philosophical legal, and historical-philosophical perspectives using methods of philosophical legal reflection, comparison, analysis and synthesis, and historical-philosophical reconstruction. The correlation between the rule of law and the state of exception was clarified in three steps. First, the fundamental idea of the rule of law was explicated, which unites its numerous interpretations: law was considered as the antithesis of the arbitrariness of the powerful. Accordingly, the rule of law turned out to be a requirement immanent to any legal system. At the same time, the internal limitation of the rule of law associated with the statutory nature of the latter was emphasised, which inevitably necessitates striking a balance between the rule of law and justice, and the radicalisation of which brings to life the idea of a state of exception. The second part of this study contains a critical analysis of the theory of the state of exception, which, in contrast to the idea of the rule of law, identifies law and force, and ultimately denies law as such, normalising lawlessness. Finally, in the third step, three approaches to the correlation between the rule of law and the state of exception were analysed: 1) the priority of the state of exception, 2) a weak version of the priority of the rule of law, and 3) a strong version of the priority of the rule of law. It was concluded that the fundamental opposition between the rule of law and the state of exception renders their consistent combination impossible, and the corresponding attempts always turn out to be a compromise not favouring the former. However, according to the authors of this study, it is necessary to recognise the limitations of the law itself, without abandoning the discourse of the rule of law and the fundamental grounds for it

Music and the State of Exception in Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men

2013 ◽  
pp. 287-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Experience Of Time ◽  
Formal Tool ◽  
Alfonso Cuaron

This article appears in the Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media edited by Carol Vernallis, Amy Herzog, and John Richardson. In Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, Giorgio Agamben provides an analysis of the “state of exception,” that situation in which the sovereign, in response to crisis, suspends the efficacy of the rule of law. This juridical move has ontological implications, for it also suspends our everyday experience of time. Music, which can emulate the concentrated temporality of the state of exception, offers itself as a powerful formal tool for its cinematic realization. In his 2006 setting of the P.D. James novel Children of Men, Alfonso Cuarón conjures a future dystopia that extrapolates this complicated political terrain. Drawing upon the complex diegetic and non-diegetic soundscape of the film, this discussion outlines the means through which music and sound intensify the filmic depiction of the state of exception.

scholarly journals The Blizzard of the World: COVID-19 and the Last Say of the State of Exception

2021 ◽  
Vol 96 ◽  
pp. 17-32
Author(s):  
Przemysław Tacik
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Inner Core ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
International Community ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The World

The paper aims to grasp the COVID-19 pandemic as a socio-political catastrophe in the Benjaminian sense. As argued in the article, the scope and nature of the COVID-19 crisis eludes us due to our closeness to its inner core. What is obfuscated in this moment is the politico-legal framework on which the international community is based, where sovereignty and turbocapitalism join their forces to produce biopolitical devices. The paper looks into uses of the state of exception in particular countries, concluding that the rule of law in the pandemic was generally put on the back burner even by the countries that officially praise it. Sovereignty clearly returned to the stage, undermining parliamentarism and civil liberties in the sake of necessity. International law remained incapable of addressing this return, let alone of enforcing responsibility of China for infringing WHO rules. As a conclusion the paper argues that COVID-19 opened new-old paths of governing the living that will play a planetary role in the future fights for dominance and imposing a new face of capitalism.

Theoretical and methodological determinants of the Robert von Mol’s concept of the social state

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-45
Author(s):  
Svetlana Pirozhok
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
The State ◽  
Scientific Article ◽  
Social State ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Thought ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 19Th Century

The relevance of determining the theoretical and methodological determinants of the Robert von Moll’s concept of the social state is due to the need to determine the patterns of evolution of ideas about the state and law, as well as the need to assess the ability to use the potential of the Robert von Moll’s theoretical and legal heritage, his predecessors and contemporaries to identify the optimal model of the social state. Modern Russia attempts to build such state. The proclamation and consolidation of Russia as a social state governed by the rule of law at the constitutional level requires attention both to the experiments carried out in social and legal development, and to the practices of social reform, and also to those ideas that have not yet been embodied. The ideas of European scholars regarding the evolution of the state-legal organization of society in the early modern period, based on which Robert von Mohl (1799–1875) developed original concepts of a social state and a state governed by the rule of law are discussed in the article. An analysis of the state of European political and legal thought and identification of the factors that have a significant impact on the development of Robert von Mohl’s doctrine of a social state governed by the rule of law are the purposes of the scientific article. The methodological basis of the study was the dialectical-materialistic, general scientific (historical, systemic) and special (historical-legal, comparativelegal) methods of legal research. The method of reconstruction and interpretation of legal ideas had great importance. As a result of the study, it was concluded that in the first half of the 19th century in European political and legal thought various approaches was formed to consider the problems of social protection and how to resolve them. The development trend of European political science became the transition from ideas and principles formed in the conditions of police states and enlightened absolutism to the ideas of a state governed by the rule of law (constitutional) that protects the rights and freedoms of a citizen. At the same time, it was a question of the rights and freedoms of only a part of the population: the proletariat growing in number and significance was not always evaluated as an independent social stratum. The axiological principles of state justification have also changed. Rights and utility principle became dominant principles. In the first half of the 19th century the social issue as an independent scientific problem of the European political and legal thought was not posed and not systematically developed. Questions about the social essence of the state, the specifics of the implementation of the state social function, the features of public administration in the new stage of socio-economic development of society predetermined the emergence of the idea of a social state. This idea was comprehensively characterized in the Robert von Mohl’s works. He went down in the history of political and legal thought as founder of the concepts of social and governed by the rule of law state.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanie du Toit
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The State ◽  
African History ◽  
Divided Societies ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Social Goods ◽  
Forward Looking

Reading South African history through the lens of interdependence helps explain the disappointment that many South Africans feel in relation to reconciliation. While they are justified in feeling let down, owing to rising inequality and social exclusion, it is wrong to blame Mandela’s strategy of just interdependence because it was abandoned too early. In seeking to overcome oppression, reconciliation is forward-looking and predicated on rebuilding relationships in divided societies. Dealing with a violent past is valuable when striving for a more just future. Reconciliation fosters just, inclusive, and fair societies and is locally owned and driven. A progressive approach to reconciliation is also needed. Reconciliation recognizes the inherent interdependence between citizens themselves, and between citizens and the state. These relationships are progressively re-established in more just ways. In so doing, it helps to create conditions in which social goods such as forgiveness, the rule of law, or democracy become possible.

Cicero and Milo

1974 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 62-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. W. Lintott
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Position ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Political Realignment ◽  
Political Scene

The battle of Bovillae on 18th January, 52 B.C., which led to Clodius' death, was literally treated by Cicero in a letter to Atticus as the beginning of a new era—he dated the letter by it, although over a year had elapsed. It is difficult to exaggerate the relief it afforded him from fear and humiliation for a few precious years before civil war put him once more in jeopardy. At one stroke Cicero lost his chief inimicus and the Republic lost a hostis and pestis. Moreover, the turmoil led to a political realignment for which Cicero had been striving for the last ten years—a reconciliation between the boni and Pompey, as a result of which Pompey was commissioned to put the state to rights. Cicero's behaviour in this context, especially his return to the centre of the political scene, is, one would have thought, of capital importance to the biographer of Cicero. Yet two recent English biographies have but briefly touched on the topic. It is true that, in the background of Cicero's personal drama, Caesar and Pompey were taking up positions which, as events turned out, would lead to the collapse of the Republic. However, Cicero and Milo were not to know this, nor were their opponents; friendly cooperation between the two super-politicians apparently was continuing. Politicians on all sides were still aiming to secure power and honour through the traditional Republican magistracies, and in this pursuit were prepared to use the odd mixture of violence, bribery and insistence on the strict letter of the constitution, which was becoming a popular recipe. In retrospect their obsession with the customary organs of power has a certain irony. Yet it is a testimony to the political atmosphere then. Their manoeuvres are also important because both the instability caused by the violence of Clodius and Milo, and the eventual confidence in the rule of law established under Pompey's protection, helped to determine the political position of the boni associated with Pompey in 49 B.C. Cicero's relationship with Milo is at first sight one of the more puzzling aspects of his career. What had they in common, except that Milo, like most late Republican politicians, was at one time associated with Pompey? Properly interpreted, however, this relationship may not only illuminate Cicero's own attitudes but illustrate the character of the last years of Republican politics.

APPLICATION OF THE RULE OF LAW IN JUDICIAL PRACTICE

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyudmyla Bogachova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
The State ◽  
Broad Sense ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Judicial Practice

The article defines the concept of the principle of the rule of law both in the narrow and broad sense. In the narrow sense, the principle of the rule of law is understood as the rule of law over legislation, and in the broad sense - as the rule of law over the state, state arbitrariness. Different approaches to disclosing the content of the principle of the rule of law in national and European legal doctrines are systematized. The lack of a single generally accepted concept of the principle of "rule of law" is emphasized. The decisions of the European Court of Human Rights are analyzed; attention is focused on their interpretation of the rule of law. The realization of the principle of the rule of law, primarily presupposes the domination of inalienable and inviolable human rights and freedoms over the political power of the state, and also requires quality laws and observance of the principle of legal certainty. The interpretation of the principle of the rule of law in the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is considered. The CCU emphasizes that the rule of law is first and foremost the "rule of law in society"; characterizes the principle, linking it to the ideas of social justice, freedom and equality, without which it is impossible to imagine true human development and existence. The Constitutional Court calls justice as one of the basic principles of law, which is crucial in defining it as a regulator of social relations, one of the universal dimensions of law. Examples of application of the rule of law in the practice of the Supreme Court of Ukraine are given. Judges not only make a formal reference to the rule of law, but also try to analyze and disclose the content of its constituent elements (requirements) within a specific legal case. The main problems that hinder the effective implementation and realization of the rule of law in judicial practice are identified, namely - the lack of proper regulation and official interpretation; low quality of laws and legislative process; excessive number of conflicting laws; low level of legal awareness and legal culture of Ukrainian society, and early stage of civil society development in Ukraine. It is concluded that the rule of law is a principle whose main content is expressed in the following aspects: ensuring the rule of law over political power; subordination of state institutions to the needs of human rights protection and ensuring their implementation; priority of these rights over all other values of democratic, social, and legal state; preventing the manifestation of arbitrariness of state power, as well as ensuring compliance with the requirements of justice.

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