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

• Authors: Przemysław Tacik

Title variants

PL

Zadymka świata: COVID-19 i ostatnie słowo stanu wyjątkowego

Abstracts

PL

Celem artykułu jest ujęcie pandemii COVID-19 jako socjopolitycznej katastrofy w sensie Waltera Benjamina. Zakres i natura kryzysu związanego z COVID-19 są nam niedostępne z racji naszej bliskości do jego centrum. W tym szczególnym momencie zaciemnieniu ulegają polityczno-prawne ramy wspólnoty międzynarodowej, w których suwerenność i turbokapitalizm łączą się w celu stworzenia biopolitycznych urządzeń. W artykule dokonano przeglądu zastosowań stanu wyjątkowego w poszczególnych państwach; jego konkluzją jest ogólne zaniedbanie kwestii praworządności nawet w krajach, które głoszą do niej przywiązanie. Bez wątpienia kluczową rolę zaczęła ponownie odgrywać suwerenność – podważając parlamentaryzm oraz swobody obywatelskie w imię konieczności. Prawo międzynarodowe okazało się niezdolne nie tylko do odpowiedzi na to zjawisko, ale nawet do wyegzekwowania odpowiedzialności Chin za złamanie reguł WTO. Artykuł zamyka konkluzja, zgodnie z którą COVID-19 otworzył nowe-stare ścieżki zarządzania żywymi, które odegrają planetarną rolę w przyszłych walkach o dominację i przeobrażą funkcjonowanie kapitalizmu.

EN

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.

Keywords

PL

COVID-19; stan wyjątkowy; biopolityka; suwerenność; konieczność

EN

COVID-19; state of exception; biopolitics; sovereignty; necessity

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Iuridica
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 96
• Pages: 17-32

Dates

published

2021

Contributors

author

Przemysław Tacik

• Nomos: Centre for International Research on Law, Culture and Power, Jagiellonian University in Kraków

• https://orcid.org/0000000171741752

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Identifiers

DOI

10.18778/0208-6069.96.02

Biblioteka Nauki

2034090