State of exception Research Papers (original) (raw)

Esta obra nasce, inegavelmente, daquele que vem sendo considerado o mais emblemático caso de lawfare da atualidade: a persecução penal contra o ex-presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Disso resultam aspectos positivos e negativos.... more

Esta obra nasce, inegavelmente, daquele que vem sendo considerado o mais emblemático caso de lawfare da atualidade: a persecução penal contra o ex-presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Disso resultam aspectos positivos e negativos. Por um lado, tem- se acesso a um extraordinário universo empírico que, a um só tempo, inspira e confirma hipóteses teóricas. Por outro lado, entretanto, em função da repercussão do caso e das disputas políticas, comerciais e geopolíticas a ele subjacentes, o debate teórico é frequentemente interditado por distorções e vulgarizações.
O lawfare não é um mero rótulo, nem um modismo e muito menos um joguete a serviço de determinada ideologia política. Trata-se, em verdade, de um fenômeno complexo, multifacetado e que ocupa um lugar central na reflexão sobre as combalidas democracias constitucionais contemporâneas, na medida em que é capaz de solapar, de um só golpe, o princípio majoritário e o Estado de Direito.
Também se enganam aqueles que pensam que o lawfare se restringe ao domínio político, confundindo-o com o tema do ativismo judicial.
Como veremos ao longo desta obra, o lawfare pode vitimar todo e qualquer sujeito de direito e, aliás, não faltam casos contra grandes grupos empresariais.
A literatura especializada, por sua vez, tem oscilado, via de regra, entre análises circunscritas a apenas alguns ângulos do fenômeno ou amplos estudos de casos. Eis a razão pela qual empreendemos um grande esforço para oferecer, ainda que de maneira introdutória, um quadro teórico abrangente do tema, aplicável à multifária e contingente forma mediante a qual o lawfare se apresenta na realidade.
Não nos anima, naturalmente, mero diletantismo. Neste momento histórico decisivo, em que se colocam em xeque conquistas civilizatórias inegociáveis, urge desvelar o fenômeno do lawfare e também indicar os meios de enfrentá-lo, de modo a restabelecer o verdadeiro significado do Direito. É exatamente isso que a querida leitora e o querido leitor encontrarão nas páginas deste livro.

This study aims to answer where normality ends and where exception begins in politics. This distinction is crucial to understand not only the management of populations and subjects but also the very nature of political power. To do that,... more

This study aims to answer where normality ends and where exception begins in politics. This distinction is crucial to understand not only the management of populations and subjects but also the very nature of political power. To do that, I readdress concepts such as governmentality and exceptionalism using examples from the late European context: the management of “normal” data subjects and the administration of “exceptional” groups such as refugees. In light of this, the paper argues that the borderline which traditionally has separated exceptionality and governmentality is not blurred. It simply does not exist anymore. Due to the impossibility to separate those dimensions, the result is that exceptionalism can be expanded through governmentality whereas normalization seems to give an orientation to this dual phenomenon in every political decision.

The general conversation today about the USA PATRIOT Act and its historical and legal significance must be contextualized with reference to a series of 1970s U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding the U.S. Border Patrol that directly... more

The general conversation today about the USA PATRIOT Act and its historical and legal significance must be contextualized with reference to a series of 1970s U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding the U.S. Border Patrol that directly undergird the PATRIOT Act. The Supreme Court long ago turned the U.S. borderlands adjoining Mexico into a permanent racial camp, and the borderlands is the "home," as it were, of the permanent state of legal, racial exceptionalism. This problem must be theorized as structural in nature, rather than historical or contingent, in order to confront the matter of exceptional sovereignty at its constitutional foundations. Readings of the Supreme Court decisions regarding Japanese American internment and of Charles Mills's Racial Contract provide a context for the elaboration of this problem. A final reflection on José Antonio Burciaga's poem "Green Nightmares" suggests an idea for justice at the limit of sovereign authority that must be relentlessly exposed in order to begin to imagine a future deracialized polity.

This paper analyzes the laws and policies employed by the Puerto Rican government to address the economic and financial crisis that has been affecting Puerto Rico since 2005. This analysis is built upon the concept of the internal state... more

This paper analyzes the laws and policies employed by the Puerto Rican government to address the economic and financial crisis that has been affecting Puerto Rico since 2005. This analysis is built upon the concept of the internal state of exception; a concept that aims to provide a better understanding of the correlation between neoliberalism, colonialism, economy, and law. This paper proposes: 1) a depiction of the state of exception and its uses as an economic and financial crisis management dispositive; 2) an exposition of the Puerto Rican government's uses of the internal state of exception as a dispositive to tackle the eco nomic and financial crisis between 2005 and 2016; and 3) an analysis of the uses of the inter nal state of exception by the Puerto Rican government in 2017. Thus, this paper reinterprets the uses of the state of exception as a strategy to manage economic and fiscal crises from a colonial and global south experience and proposes a new understanding of this legal and political paradigm.

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... more

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.

How can we assess the institutional resilience of consolidated democracies in emergency situations? How can we know which regulations of the state of emergency best immunize democratic systems from intra- or inter-regime shifts? With the... more

How can we assess the institutional resilience of consolidated democracies in emergency situations? How can we know which regulations of the state of emergency best immunize democratic systems from intra- or inter-regime shifts? With the COVID-19 pandemic, these questions have become urgent. Although worries that intra- or inter-regime shifts may increase due to the proclamation of the state of emergency mainly target countries that were already prone to autocratization, specific complaints have been addressed at undue impingements on fundamental rights in consolidated democracies, too. In most of the current indexes, the presence or absence of certain institutional features is usually considered as per se sufficient to determine the degree of a system’s resilience. Instead, our analysis suggests that these criteria ought to be used as heuristics in the context of an in-depth analysis of institutional mechanisms. This would lead to a reformulation of how such indexes are made. In order to make this point, the article presents a qualitative methodology based on the classical theory of the “state of exception”, taking the divergent cases of Italy and Portugal as an illustration.

Departing from a critical understanding of the relationship between state, law and power, we propose a critical overview of the concept of the state of exception developed by Giorgio Agamben. We emphasise the idea that the principle of... more

Departing from a critical understanding of the relationship between state, law and power, we propose a critical overview of the concept of the state of exception developed by Giorgio Agamben. We emphasise the idea that the principle of legal exceptionality is not as merely used in response to the current crisis in capitalism, but is an enduring and core technique of power used by states to reproduce economic and colonial power relations. Thus, this paper offers three core points of departure from dominant understandings of the state of exception. First, we urge a rupture of the crude opposition between positive law and the state of exception. Second, we argue for a rejection of limited Western concept of (liberal, political) rights. Finally, we argue for an attention to the materiality of power relations, rather than a narrow focus on the power projected by formal institutions of state power.

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan television series on Amazon presents the iconic Jack Ryan in a different capacity than has previously been expressed in Clancy’s books or movies. This Jack Ryan exists in the state of exception as a part of the... more

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan television series on Amazon presents the iconic Jack Ryan in a different capacity than has previously been expressed in Clancy’s books or movies. This Jack Ryan exists in the state of exception as a part of the machinery which continues the U.S. involvement in the Middle East as an analyst for the CIA. Through Agamben’s work on the state of exception, this paper argues that for there to be a state of exception there must be something that challenges the designation of some people as “bare life”, what we term a sovereign agent. Ryan does not begin as a sovereign agent, he goes through a process that culminates in his emergence as one.
To become a sovereign agent, one must meet three criteria. The person must be an agent of the sovereign, a person who is a part of the military or one of the agencies under the sovereign’s direct purview, in this case the CIA. Second, the person must exhibit their agency ethically, specifically by being for the other. The state of exception deems some people “bare life” and by being for the other, the sovereign agent, subverts that designation. Lastly, the person must possess phronesis of virtue which allows them to act without hesitation in ethical dilemmas. These three aspects of the sovereign agent allows one to act within the state of exception while following an ethical path which counters the de facto norms of their position within the state of exception.

Crimmigration, that is, the merging of criminal and migration law, is receiving increasing attention within criminology. However, while crimmigration widens our understanding of coercion and punishment, it is a reductive lens through... more

Crimmigration, that is, the merging of criminal and migration law, is receiving increasing attention within criminology. However, while crimmigration widens our understanding of coercion and punishment, it is a reductive lens through which to make sense of migration control. This article comprises three parts: first, I critique the concept of crimmigration, its conceptual foundations, and its methodological limitations. Second, I explore how migration control practice transcends both the state’s territory and sovereignty, using the example of the European Union’s policy of non-assistance, and argue that this policy evidences the need to move beyond crime-based categories in favour of a social harm-based approach. Lastly, I propose a zemiological methodology for the study of migration control, based on a critical realist view of society and building on Nancy Fraser’s idea of social justice. The resulting framework provides a coherent and empirically useful tool for the study of border-related harms.

In northwest China, the state is using technology to pioneer a new form of terror capitalism.

Monografia dotyczy problemu legitymizacji działań władzy publicznej podejmowanych w obliczu zagrożenia, którego skala oraz szybkość eskalacji pozwala na stwierdzenie wystąpienia sytuacji nadzwyczajnej (public emergency). Praca ma... more

Monografia dotyczy problemu legitymizacji działań władzy publicznej podejmowanych w obliczu zagrożenia, którego skala oraz szybkość eskalacji pozwala na stwierdzenie wystąpienia sytuacji nadzwyczajnej (public emergency). Praca ma odpowiedzieć na pytanie czy aktywność podejmowana w celu jej opanowania powinna zawsze znajdować podstawę w prawie pozytywnym, czy, przynajmniej w niektórych przypadkach, może opierać się na sytuacyjnej konieczności? Dogmatyczne nauki prawne nie dostarczają pełnej odpowiedzi na to pytanie. Traktują one zjawisko public emergency przede wszystkim jako tło dla analiz norm prawa pozytywnego. Niniejsza praca ma wyjaśnić, w jaki sposób reakcja organów państwa na sytuację nadzwyczajną wpisuje się w określoną filozofię prawa, warunkującą procesy jego tworzenia, stosowania i obowiązywania. Autor porusza szereg kwestii o charakterze metaprawnym. Szczególnym zagrożeniom publicznym towarzyszyć mogą kontrowersyjne działania legislacyjne, jak również rozwój aktywizmu sędziowskiego – stanowiącego wyraz współdziałania wymiaru sprawiedliwości z władzą wykonawczą lub, przeciwnie, zmierzającego do zapobieżenia nadużyciom tej władzy w szczególnych okolicznościach. Zmianie ulega sposób argumentacji prawniczej i metody wykładni. Zwiększa się skala występowania tzw. zdarzeń granicznych, które filozofia prawa zna i rozpatruje pod nazwą trudnych przypadków.

La monografía expone el derecho de excepción español. A modo introductorio, se exhiben los distintos modelos normativos clásicos para afrontar crisis constitucionales. Una vez identificado el modelo jurídico español, se analiza el bloque... more

La monografía expone el derecho de excepción español. A modo introductorio, se exhiben los distintos modelos normativos clásicos para afrontar crisis constitucionales. Una vez identificado el modelo jurídico español, se analiza el bloque constitucional que lo desarrolla. Para ilustrar su correcta interpretación, se critica al defectuoso estado de alarma dictado en España durante el 2020 para combatir el Covid-19. Al desglosar los elementos esenciales que componen la naturaleza del derecho excepcional, se descubre su inquietante similitud con el derecho penal, concluyendo que éste es un derivado de aquel. Dicha conclusión sienta las bases para diseñar una teoría del derecho excepcional y del derecho penal renovadas. Para terminar, se compara el marco normativo interno con las obligaciones internacionales contraídas por España, revelando que la configuración interna no respeta los tratados internacionales. A la espera que el presente trabajo evite la continuidad de graves errores de aplicación que desembocan en sentencias de inconstitucionalidad, se exclama la necesidad de una reforma constitucional que permita incorporar las enseñanzas de la experiencia.

It has been investigated in this article that contrary to the assessment of other commentators, the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis did not bring on or finalise the authoritarian turn in Hungary. Rather the conditions for authoritarian... more

It has been investigated in this article that contrary to the assessment of
other commentators, the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis did not bring on or finalise the authoritarian turn in Hungary. Rather the conditions for authoritarian rule preceded the crisis and were certain to define how the government would respond to the crisis. It is beyond question that by introducing the so-called Enabling Act, which grants absolute power to the Prime Minister, the Orbán government has become an authoritarian political system. Evidently this represents a substantial danger to the European Union, one that has existed for some time but became heightened in the context of a fresh eurozone crisis. Nevertheless, the
unholy use of the coronavirus situation is just the latest stage of exceptional government in Hungary. The main social and political outcome of this permanent state of exception is the subjection of society to the forces of neoliberalism. Along with the new Enabling Law the neoliberalization of public services also put the Hungarian society in an incredibly difficult position to handle the threat of the epidemic. Moreover, the main cause behind the emerging Fascism is the class
politics of the political system, which is based on the compromise of the upper middle-class and national bourgeoisie. I propose here that the main aim of Orbán is to maintain the post-pandemic world by the unnecessary extension of state of exception. During the epidemic crisis Orbán has achieved all the neoliberal goals that have always defined his authoritarian policy. So, a new period of the system is in the making and Orbán is interested in the deepening of the crisis

Artykuł porusza problem odrębności stanu wojennego od pozostałych stanów nadzwyczajnych. Zawiera on charakterystykę przesłanek zastosowania stanu wojennego i wyjątkowego oraz środków nadzwyczajnych dotyczących sił zbrojnych. W artykule... more

Artykuł porusza problem odrębności stanu wojennego od pozostałych stanów nadzwyczajnych. Zawiera on charakterystykę przesłanek zastosowania stanu wojennego i wyjątkowego oraz środków nadzwyczajnych dotyczących sił zbrojnych. W artykule potwierdzono sformułowaną we wstępie hipotezę, zgodnie z którą to nie rodzaj zagrożenia przesądza o odrębności stanu wojennego tylko uprawnienia sił zbrojnych, w szczególności wobec władz cywilnych.

The state of siege as an institution is a French legal creation of the late eigh-teenth century and it lies in the field of exception. With the French regulation, the measure reaffirmed the transitional sense of the institute, because the... more

The state of siege as an institution is a French legal creation of the late eigh-teenth century and it lies in the field of exception. With the French regulation, the measure reaffirmed the transitional sense of the institute, because the state of siege flirts with authoritarianism by hypertrophying power in the Executive and allowing more severe measures of repression. The article works with French sources (military, legislative and juridical documents) to, after presenting the notions of constitutional formulation of the institute, analyze its use in France from the French Revolution to the First World War. The measure, which was not a cold letter of the law, was present in the political regimes following the revolutionary phase and gained great repercussion in other legislations. Methodologically, the normative perspective is used to define the state of siege institute, evaluating its development as well as promoting quantitative and qualitative analyses. The data are put into dialog with the most recent international historiography, especially the French one, about the matter. The article concludes that its transposition from a military notion of battlefield to a fictitious notion applied in a political context was full of applications enabling a significant use of arbitrariness by legal means.

This essay illustrates how a Foucauldian theory of power could re-examine
postcolonial, coloniality or colonization contexts, as opposed to the current
structuralist an

The paper explores the interconnections between legal and animal geographies as manifested in American zoos. On the one hand, law shapes not only the zoo's physical facilities, but also the very identity of zoo animals. On the other hand,... more

The paper explores the interconnections between legal and animal geographies as manifested in American zoos. On the one hand, law shapes not only the zoo's physical facilities, but also the very identity of zoo animals. On the other hand, the peculiarity of zoo animals — and of zoos as public spaces that display such animals — also translates into an anomalous state of zoo laws. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part demonstrates that, despite the numerous official laws that pertain to animals in various settings, exceptions and exemptions that apply to the zoo animal make it into an almost extralegal creature. The second part examines the laws that regulate the zoo's physical facilities, showing how — in this context too — the zoo is regulated mostly through variances and exceptions. The third part focuses on the zoo's self-regulating industry standards, arguing that they provide yet another reason for the peculiar legal state of zoos and their animals. Drawing on a set of interviews, conducted mostly with American zoo professionals, the paper explores the interstitial nature of law, space, and animals, offering a fresh perspective into, and a few interconnections between, the literatures of animal geography and law and geography.

This paper sets out to develop two related ideas. First, it seeks to identify how both violence and neoliberalism can be considered as moments. From this shared conceptualisation of process and fluidity, I argue that it becomes easier to... more

This paper sets out to develop two related ideas. First, it seeks to identify how both violence and neoliberalism can be considered as moments. From this shared conceptualisation of process and fluidity, I argue that it becomes easier to recognise how these two phenomena actually converge. Building upon this conceived coalescence of neoliberalism and violence, the second aim is to recognise how the hegemony of neoliberalism positions it as an abuser, which facilitates the abandonment of those ‘Others’ who fall outside of neoliberal normativity. I argue that the widespread banishment of ‘Others’ under neoliberalism produces a ‘state of exception’, wherein because of its inherently dialectic nature, exceptional violence is transformed into exemplary violence. This metamorphosis occurs as aversion for alterity intensifies under neoliberalism and its associated violence against ‘Others’ comes to form the rule.

Το ελληνικό Συμβούλιο της Επικρατείας ουδέποτε έκρινε ότι η δημοσιονομική κρίση συνιστά μια κατάσταση έκτακτης ανάγκης που θα μπορούσε να δικαιολογήσει εξαίρεση από συνταγματικούς κανόνες. Αντιθέτως, συχνά διακηρύσσει ότι τα μέτρα... more

Το ελληνικό Συμβούλιο της Επικρατείας ουδέποτε έκρινε ότι η δημοσιονομική κρίση συνιστά μια κατάσταση έκτακτης ανάγκης που θα μπορούσε να δικαιολογήσει εξαίρεση από συνταγματικούς κανόνες. Αντιθέτως, συχνά διακηρύσσει ότι τα μέτρα λιτότητας του ‘Μνημονίου’ δεν εξαιρούνται του ελέγχου, μολονότι αναγνωρίζει ευρύτατο περιθώριο εκτίμησης στο νομοθέτη. Υπάρχουν ωστόσο ορισμένες κατηγορίες κρατικών αποφάσεων οι οποίες πράγματι εξαιρούνται του ελέγχου. Καταρχάς, το Συμβούλιο παγίως αρνείται να ελέγξει αν συντρέχουν οι «έκτακτες περιπτώσεις εξαιρετικά επείγουσας και απρόβλεπτης ανάγκης» που το ελληνικό σύνταγμα απαιτεί για την έκδοση νομοθετικών πράξεων από την κυβέρνηση χωρίς εξουσιοδότηση νόμου. Έχοντας εξασφαλίσει το δικαστικά ανέλεγκτο, οι κυβερνήσεις των τελευταίων ετών καταχρώνται τη δυνατότητα αυτή, για να νομοθετούν ανενόχλητες από την κοινοβουλευτική δημοσιότητα. Περαιτέρω, το Συμβούλιο αποφεύγει να ελέγξει αν πράγματι συντρέχουν οι εξαιρετικές προϋποθέσεις που το σύνταγμα απαιτεί για την επίταξη προσωπικών υπηρεσιών –δηλαδή, πρακτικά, την απαγόρευση απεργιών. Έχοντας εξασφαλίσει και εδώ, αν όχι το δικαστικά ανέλεγκτο, πάντως ένα ευρύτατο περιθώριο δράσης, οι κυβερνήσεις καταχρώνται το μέτρο αυτό για να καταστείλουν κοινωνικές αντιδράσεις. Μοιάζει λοιπόν σαν το Συμβούλιο της Επικρατείας να αποδέχεται μιαν ιδιότυπη και ‘μερική’ κατάσταση εξαίρεσης που επιδιώκει να επιβάλει η πολιτική εξουσία. Είναι ιδιότυπη, διότι δεν διακηρύσσεται, αλλά επιβάλλεται σιωπηρά και υπαινικτικά. Και είναι μερική, διότι στόχος της δεν είναι τα ατομικά, οικονομικά και κοινωνικά δικαιώματα, όσο μάλλον οι συλλογικές και δημοκρατικές ελευθερίες. Στην περίοδο της κρίσης η δημοκρατία μοιάζει να απειλείται περισσότερο απ’ ό,τι το κράτος δικαίου.

Authoritarian transformation of Turkey's political regime over the last decade constitutes a challenging and peculiar example. Contrary to the democratic rhetoric of Turkey’s ruling party, Justice and Development Party (hereafter AKP),... more

Authoritarian transformation of Turkey's political regime over the last decade constitutes a challenging and peculiar example. Contrary to the democratic rhetoric of Turkey’s ruling party, Justice and Development Party (hereafter AKP), reports by independent observers have indicated the increasing authoritarian enactments of the incumbent government. The most problematic point is the coexistence of a multi-party democracy with AKP’s growing authoritarianism. During the countrywide state of emergency, AKP’s authoritarian practices have reached to an unbridled arbitrariness, whereas the structure of political playground has changed into a more unfair stage. This paper analyzes Turkey's regime by considering three key concepts: Dual State (Fraenkel. 1941), Competitive Authoritarianism (Levitsky and Way, 2010) and Abusive Constitutionalism (Landau,2013). The main argument presented here can be summarized as follows: I) During the countrywide state of emergency, Turkey's political regime has evolved into a dual state. The coexistence of the prerogative state and competitive authoritarianism has marked a peculiar duality II) As the AKP leadership has consolidated its power by referring to the electoral mechanisms and so undermined opposition groups, the concept of competitive authoritarianism has gained relevance III) This authoritarian transformation towards the dual state is the result of AKP’s long term strategies - which can be considered as an example of abusive constitutionalism. The original contribution of this paper is its attempt to integrate Ernst Fraenkel`s concept of dual state to the recent debate on authoritarian regimes. In this way, this paper aims to provide a better understanding of the complex relation between the two contrasting sides of Turkey`s political regime.

Recent studies of authoritarianism in Turkey often conceptualize the problem as a move away from the rule of law toward rule by law; that is, law’s political instrumentalization by powerful authoritarian movements or personalities.... more

Recent studies of authoritarianism in Turkey often conceptualize the problem as a move away from the rule of law toward rule by law; that is, law’s political instrumentalization by powerful authoritarian movements or personalities. Informed by the liberal legalist assumption that conceives law and politics as two disparate spheres, these studies tend nostalgically to idealize the liberal rule of law past as a benchmark against which today’s predicament is compared. Instead, we attempt to develop an alternative framework, which analyzes law and politics as co-constitutive domains of power, domination, and struggle. We argue that the current state of exception in Turkey (Olağanüstü Hal, literally meaning “extraordinary situation” and is abbreviated as OHAL) would be more fruitfully analyzed by taking into account the historical and structural relations of power traversing the daily practices of law. In this respect, we suggest the following three points as promising research strategies: (1) offering a more extensive temporal framework that focuses on the historical continuities and discontinuities as well as the uneven experience and spatiality of exceptional rule; (2) avoiding methodological nationalism and situating the current authoritarian surge in the context of other formations of authoritarianism in the “peripheries” of global law and politics; and (3) developing a more relational study of law by including the political economic dimension, not just as a causal factor, but also in terms of its effects.

Monografia poświęcona relacjom literatury i doświadczenia stanu wyjątkowego. Wychodząc od przekonania, że teza Waltera Benjamina o stanie wyjątkowym, który stał się regułą, w pierwszych dekadach XXI wieku nie traci nic ze swojej... more

Monografia poświęcona relacjom literatury i doświadczenia stanu wyjątkowego. Wychodząc od przekonania, że teza Waltera Benjamina o stanie wyjątkowym, który stał się regułą, w pierwszych dekadach XXI wieku nie traci nic ze swojej aktualności, książka próbuje jednocześnie przekonywać, że uprzywilejowanym miejscem refleksji nad anomią jest literatura. Literatura odgrywa tu rolę czujnego sejsmografu, który nie tylko rejestruje sytuację radykalnego kryzysu społecznego, ale też wykazuje zdolność kwestionowania obowiązujących form stanu wyjątkowego, a w konsekwencji zdolność wynajdywania odmiennych, sprzyjających jednostkowemu życiu postaci anomii.

This article provides an outline for a new interpretation of the trial of the Templars, with special attention to the texts written by the instigators of the case, namely, Philip the Fair and his ministers. The trial had everything to do... more

This article provides an outline for a new interpretation of the trial of the Templars, with special attention to the texts written by the instigators of the case, namely, Philip the Fair and his ministers. The trial had everything to do with the growth of the French monarchy. With the “discovery” and repression of the “Templars' heresy,” the Capetian monarchy claimed for itself the mystic foundations of the papal theocracy. The Temple case was the last step of a process of appropriating these foundations, which had begun with the Franco-papal rift at the time of Boniface VIII. Being the ultimate defender of the Catholic faith, the Capetian king was now fully invested with a Christlike function that put him above the pope. What was at stake in the Templars' trial was the establishment of a royal theocracy.

This article examines the lasting phenomenological consequences of inhabiting “spaces” of exception by rethinking the operation of sovereign violence therein. Taking as its point of departure Giorgio Agamben’s suggestion that the ‘state... more

This article examines the lasting phenomenological consequences of inhabiting “spaces” of exception by rethinking the operation of sovereign violence therein. Taking as its point of departure Giorgio Agamben’s suggestion that the ‘state of exception’ is the ‘rule’ of modern politics, I argue that arbitrary sovereign violence has taken the place of the ‘sovereign decision’ of Carl Schmitt’s original theory. However, recognizing that it is neither enough simply to articulate the institutional grid of intelligibility of the state of exception nor expose the logics of sovereignty that make possible arbitrary violence, it draws on phenomenology, affect theory, and trauma studies to reorient our focus from the sovereign to the subject upon whom sovereign power is executed. Ultimately it proposes a new understanding of modern subjecthood as one of existential insecurity generated by the ‘new age of anxiety’ permeating social and political life today.

Paru dans Elsa Forey, Jean-Jacques Clère, Bernard Quiriny (dir.), La pensée constitutionnelle de Robespierre, Paris, La mémoire du droit, 2018, p. 183-198.

This thesis is about the rapid expansion of a new mechanics of power and its implementation in relegated areas, such as the chosen case study: the favela da Rocinha, after the installation of a Center of Command and Control at UPP... more

This thesis is about the rapid expansion of a new mechanics of power and its implementation in relegated areas, such as the chosen case study: the favela da Rocinha, after the installation of a Center of Command and Control at UPP Rocinha. To better depict this process, through interviews, ethnographically- inspired day-to-day accompaniment, informal talks and literature review, it also was developed an extensive field work and a theoretical effort to try to explain reality as it presented itself in the field.
From the analysis of subsequent processes to or presuppositions of the central aim of the research, more data is gathered and there's certainly more substratum to get to the point. This is the reason why are analyzed here the origins and function of the police institution, the history of the Military Police of the state of Rio de Janeiro, the public safety policies of Sérgio Cabral and Pezão administrations, the war on drugs and the militarization of public safety, the favela as an analytical category – or not -, the UPP project. Besides key theoretical concepts to the development of this work, such as: state of exception, homo sacer, the field, schmittian sovereignty and biopolitics.
After these conceptual discussions, the course of the analysis is modified to understand which other mechanics of power are still in full operation and how they mingle, reframing themselves, giving birth to a hybrid. The disciplinary society, an embedded kind of governmentality in the favelas, clashes with the society of control, thus mixing biopolitics and control. As well as the society of control, electronic surveillance is rhizomatic, the opposite of surveillance in disciplinary societies, which is arborescent, because it denies the multiplicities, through “molding” processes depicted by Deleuze and Guattari (2000).
Only then it is possible to reach conclusions from the field with high explicative power, for instance, that the implementation of the camera system accentuates differentiations, therefore, expanding the social cleavages, once it is based on classifications, which in turn are based on racist, misogynistic and class stereotypes not to mention others of all sorts, varying in function of the perceived risks and of the desired target-population to be declared under exception rules with electronic monitoring, typical of society of control borderless penalizations, which is already called by some as ecopolitics.

Through the description of the discourses and uses and their legitimizing effects in the counterterrorism field since the 9/11, we will illustrate a political and social disruptive configuration settled between peace and war. The... more

Through the description of the discourses and uses and their legitimizing effects in the counterterrorism field since the 9/11, we will illustrate a political and social disruptive configuration settled between peace and war. The understanding of new and old political dynamics at the origin of these processes allows us to question state violence and its legitimization through special and temporary legal frameworks. In this perspective it is also important to discuss the philosophical notion of exceptionalism at the light of a sociological and political approach in which the question of institutional and political strategies are central. Cette contribution entend poser la question des ordres politiques disloqués grâce à une analyse des normes et pratiques mises en oeuvre au nom de la « guerre » contre le terrorisme. L'étude des discours de légitimation, de l'adoption des procédures pénales ainsi que des usages établis en Europe et en Amérique du Nord suite aux attentats du 11 septembre 2001, offre un terrain d'étude pertinent afin d'appréhender de manière concrète les configurations politiques et sociales oscillant entre le registre de la guerre et celui de la paix.