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Carl Schmitt's Fear: Nomos – Norm – Network

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2010

INO AUGSBERG
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Abstract

Carl Schmitt is still astonishingly present in the legal discourse. Yet instead of indulging in the study of his explicit ‘lesson’ and its possible impact on contemporary legal problems, it might be worthwhile to survey the primary cause of his greatest fear. Following this perspective, the article analyses Schmitt's concept of the nomos, distinguishing it from the traditional normativist approach on the one hand and confronting it with a more recent understanding of law in terms of the network conception on the other. Thus Schmitt's view of the developing legal system in the twentieth century proves to be relevant to our current efforts to grasp newly emerging legal phenomena in the twenty-first century.

Keywords

networknomospoliticalrhizometextuality
Type
ARTICLES
Information
Leiden Journal of International Law , Volume 23 , Special Issue 4: Kelsen, Schmitt, Arendt, and the Possibilities of Constitutionalisation in (International) Law , December 2010 , pp. 741 - 757
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 2010

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References

1 J.-W. Müller, A Dangerous Mind: Carl Schmitt in Post-war European Thought (2003), 221 ff.; see also the contributions in the specials issues of (2006) 19 LJIL and (2005) 104 (2) South Atlantic Quarterly.

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39 J. Derrida, ‘Plato's Pharmacy’, in Derrida, Dissemination (1981), 67, 130.

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49 On this see Meier, supra note 8.

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51 Ibid.

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53 Schmitt, supra note 10, at 24.

54 Ibid., at 25 (emphasis in original).

55 Ibid., at 22.

56 Balke, supra note 48, at 27.

57 Ibid.

58 Schmitt, supra note 10, at 98.

59 Ibid., at 26.

60 Schmitt, supra note 15, at 160, with reference to Ernst Cassirer's essay ‘Substanzbegriff und Funktionsbegriff’ (1910); sceptically, as to the coherence of Cassirer's distinction and the concept of occasio, Schmitt, supra note 10, at 193, n. 1; hereunto see Balke, supra note 48, at 126.

61 N. Luhmann, Grundrechte als Institution: Ein Beitrag zur politischen Soziologie (1975), 8.

62 Schmitt, supra note 10, at 222.

63 Ibid.

64 Derrida, supra note 40, at 133.

65 Schmitt, supra note 10, at 146.

66 Ibid., at 123.

67 N. Luhmann, Soziale Systeme: Grundriß einer allgemeinen Theorie (1994), 83.

68 H. Kelsen, ‘Gott und Staat’, in H. Klecatsky et al. (eds.), Die Wiener rechtstheoretische Schule: Schriften von Hans Kelsen, Adolf Merkl, Alfred Verdross, vol. 1 (1968), 171, 193.

69 Gross, supra note 12, at 102.

70 Balke, supra note 48, at 126 (emphasis in original).

71 Schmitt, supra note 10, at 174.

72 Ibid., at 22.

73 J. Derrida, ‘Living On/Border Lines’, in H. Bloom, P. de Man, J. Derrida, and G. Hartman, Deconstruction and Criticism (1979), 75, 84.

74 R. Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text (1975), 64.

75 Koskenniemi, supra note 6, at 420.

76 For an overview on the debate see Paulus, A., ‘Zur Zukunft der Völkerrechtswissenschaft in Deutschland: Zwischen Konstitutionalisierung und Fragmentierung des Völkerrechts’, (2007) 67 Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht 695Google Scholar.

77 On the ongoing discussion see, e.g., M. Koskenniemi and P. Leino, ‘Fragmentation of International Law? Postmodern Anxieties’, (2002) 15 LJIL 553; Fischer-Lescano, A. and Teubner, G., ‘Regime-Collisions: The Vain Search for Legal Unity in the Fragmentation of Global Law’, (2004) 25 Michigan Journal of International Law 999Google Scholar; B. Simma and D. Pulkowski, ‘Of Planets and the Universe: Self-Contained Regimes in International Law’, (2006) 17 EJIL 483.

78 Fischer-Lescano and Teubner, supra note 77.

79 Luhmann, N., ‘Die Weltgesellschaft’, (1971) 57 Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie 1Google Scholar; Luhmann, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft (1997), 145 ff.

80 Luhmann, supra note 67; see also W. Rasch, Niklas Luhmann's Modernity: The Paradoxes of Differentiation (2000).

81 See on the possible relevance of systems theory for international law in general Oeter, S., ‘International Law and General Systems Theory’, (2001) 44 German Yearbook of International Law 72Google Scholar.

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83 G. Teubner, ‘Des Königs viele Leiber: Die Selbstdekonstruktion der Hierarchie des Rechts’, in H. Brunkhorst and M. Kettner (eds.), Globalisierung und Demokratie: Wirtschaft, Recht, Medien (2000), 240.

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90 Ibid., at 1017.

91 C. Schmitt, Der Begriff des Politischen: Text von 1932 mit einem Vorwort und drei Corollarien (2002), 10.

92 C. Schmitt, ‘Der neue Nomos der Erde’, in Schmitt, Staat, Großraum, Nomos (1995), 518, 521.

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98 Simma and Pulkowski, supra note 77, at 484. Moreover, there are phenomena of network failure leading to the re-establishment of hierarchical orders; see Teubner, G., ‘“And if I by Beelzebub cast out Devils, . . .”: An Essay on the Diabolics of Network Failure’, (2009) 10 German Law Journal 115Google Scholar.

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102 Deleuze and Guattari, supra note 100, at 10.

103 On this see in more detail Augsberg, supra note 36.

104 G. Deleuze and F. Guattari, Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature (1986); Deleuze and Guattari, supra note 100, at 14.

105 Deleuze and Guattari, supra note 100, at 7.

106 W. Welsch, Unsere postmoderne Moderne (1987), 142.

107 Schmitt, supra note 91, at 11.

108 Schmitt, supra note 10, at 26.

109 Derrida, supra note 40, at 129; and hereunto A. J. P. Thomson, Deconstruction and Democracy: Derrida's Politics of Friendship (2005), 161.

110 Derrida, supra note 40, at 133.

111 Ibid., at 129 (emphasis in original).

112 Rasch, supra note 36, at 6.

113 On this distinction see C. Schmitt, Land und Meer (1981). Of course, Schmitt's own use of the metaphors does not refer to a turn towards network conceptions; it describes a development of international law from a European nation-state-centred perspective to colonialist, worldwide politics. See hereunto C. Burchard, ‘Interlinking the Domestic with the International: Carl Schmitt on Democracy and International Relations’, (2006) 19 LJIL 9, 11.

114 Jameson, supra note 3, at 203.

115 Ibid., at 204.

116 Rasch, supra note 36, at 97.

117 For a new discussion on this distinction see Rancière, supra note 38.

118 Rasch, supra note 36, at 98.

119 Carty, supra note 4.

120 Koskenniemi, supra note 6, at 500.

121 See, however, on the ongoing relevance of borders in contemporary discussions on constitutionalism in European and international law I. Ley, ‘Verfassung ohne Grenzen? Zur Bedeutung von Grenzen im postnationalen Konstitutionalismus’, in I. Pernice et al. (eds.), Europa jenseits seiner Grenzen: Politologische, historische und juristische Perspektiven (2009), 91.

122 On this perspective see Ulmen, G. L., ‘American Imperialism and International Law – Carl Schmitt and the US in World Affairs’, (1987) 72 Telos 43CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See, moreover, with further differentiations, J. Tully, ‘On Law, Democracy and Imperialism’, in E. Christodoulidis and S. Tierney (eds.), Public Law and Politics: The Scope and Limits of Constitutionalism (2008), 69.

123 See the contributions in M. Byers and G. Nolte (eds.), United States Hegemony and the Foundation of international Law (2003); Viellechner, L., ‘Amerikanischer Unilateralismus als Verfassungsfrage? Zur rechtlichen Begründung des einseitigen Handelns der USA auf internationaler Ebene’, (2006) 45 Der Staat 1Google Scholar.

124 Rasch, supra note 80.

125 See, with respect to the concept of human dignity, K.-H. Ladeur and I. Augsberg, Die Funktion der Menschenwürde im Verfassungsstaat: Humangenetik – Neurowissenschaft – Medien (2008).

126 Luhmann, supra note 61, at 79; Teubner, G., ‘The Anonymous Matrix: Human Rights Violations by ‘Private’ Transnational Actors’, (2006) 69 Modern Law Review 327CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ladeur, K.-H. and Augsberg, I., ‘The Myth of the Neutral State: The Relationship between State and Religion in the Face of New Challenges’, (2007) 8 German Law Journal 143Google Scholar.

127 See on the problem C. Douzinas, Human Rights and Empire: The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism (2007).

128 H. P. Aust, ‘The Normative Environment for Peace – On the Contribution of the ICL's Articles on State Responsibility’, in G. Nolte (ed.), Peace through International Law (2009), 13, 44.

129 Koskenniemi, supra note 6, at 500.

130 Rasch, supra note 36, at 5.

131 H. Meier, Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss: The Hidden Dialogue (1995).

132 Koskenniemi, supra note 6, at 436; W. Scheuermann, Carl Schmitt: The End of Law (1999), 225.

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134 Schmitt, supra note 91, at 27.

135 Rasch, supra note 36, at 5 (emphasis in original).

136 Derrida, supra note 40, at 116.

137 See for another very interesting attempt to use the network model for further elaboration of political theory, with reference mainly to Jean-Luc Nancy, P. Armstrong, Reticulations: Jean-Luc Nancy and the Networks of the Political (2009).