SEMINAR: CORE Seminar in Legal Theory under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Laurent DE SUTTER: Cosmin CERCEL on Lawyers, Guns and Money : Exception, Crisis and the Antinomies of Legal Modernity (Brussels: VUB, 12 OCT 2023 [HYBRID EVENT])

Lawyers, Guns and Money : Exception, Crisis and the Antinomies of Legal Modernity 

Introduction

This intervention deals with the need for examining historically emergency in the context of modernity. In a first part I shall examine the limitations of the current discourse in constitutional law and human rights law on emergency, by emphasising its lack of a historical gaze. Second, I turn to contemporary theory and philosophy – especially to Giorgio Agamben’s concept of ‘exception’ and Slavoj Zizek’s concept of ‘impossible object’, in order to offer a possible theoretical alternative to this conundrum. Identifying the exception as the ‘crack’ within the symbolic frame of modern legality, I turn to three theoretical models of dealing with its presence: Kelsen’s identity thesis, Schmitt’s exception and Pashukanis’ legal form, each in its own way avoiding to grasp the disruptive effects of exception. In a final part, I shall bring to three historical examples of how law, sovereign power and crisis fashioned the legal experience of the interwar.    

Biographical note

Prof. Dr. Cosmin Cercel is Professor (Hoogleraar) of Comparative Legal History at the University of Ghent, where he leads the ERC CoG project EMERGE, analysing the history of emergency legislation during the last century in Europe with view to offering a legal historical explanation of how the experience of emergency has shaped constitutional and political cultures across Europe in the past century. His research focuses on genealogies of law and politics with specific reference to twentieth-century continental legal history. He is the author of Towards a Jurisprudence of State-Communism: Law and the Failure of Revolution (Routledge 2018), and has co-edited States of Exception: Law, History, Theory (Routledge2020). His recent publications include: ‘Fascist Claims to Sovereign Power: Law, Politics and the Romanian Legionary Movement’ (2023) 32 (2) Contemporary European History and ‘Law, Politics, and the Military: Towards a Theory of Authoritarian Adjudication’ (2021) 22 German Law Journal 192.   

Practical information

Thursday 12 October 2023, 12 am  

Vrije Universiteit Brussel Room: Local E3.04 / (contact laurent dot desutter at vub dot be for the Teams-link)

Brussels Humanities, Sciences & Engineering Campus