Pandemic, Exception and the Law: Notes on the Shattered Nomos of Europe

• Authors: Cosmin Cercel

Title variants

PL

Pandemia, wyjątek i prawo: szkic o zdruzgotanym nomosie Europy

Abstracts

PL

W niniejszym artykule proponuję krytyczną ocenę obecnego europejskiego krajobrazu polityczno-prawnego, który rozwija się w warunkach pandemii COVID-19. Moim celem jest zaproponowanie analizy symbolicznego statusu legalności w tym kontekście i zastanowienie się nad jej historyczną trajektorią, poprzez wprowadzenie jej w dłuższą niż zazwyczaj proponowana perspektywę historyczną, jak również poprzez podkreślenie specyficznego związku pomiędzy ustawodawstwem dotyczącym sytuacji nadzwyczajnych a ideologiami autorytarnymi w Europie. Tym samym proponuję nową genealogię stanu wyjątkowego, pozwalającą na wyartykułowanie relacji między siłą prawa, normatywnością prawną i ideologią w nowoczesnym kapitalizmie. Teza, której tu bronię, jest prosta: aktualna pandemia spowodowała historyczne przyspieszenie, którego prawo, rozumiane tu jako medium symbolicznie artykułujące władzę w sposób publiczny i pozorny, nie jest w stanie dogonić. Aby uzasadnić tę tezę, najpierw dokonam bilansu istniejących teorii, analiz i narracji na temat relacji między pandemią a polityczno-prawnym krajobrazem Europy. W tym celu skupię się najpierw na tradycyjnych ujęciach prawa konstytucyjnego oraz na krytyce reakcji prawnych na pandemię dokonanej przez włoskiego filozofa Giorgio Agambena. Po tej analizie przechodzę do umiejscowienia pandemii w sferze wielorakich kryzysów dotykających Europę, które stały się widoczne od 2015 roku. Na tym etapie zwracam uwagę na różnorodne warstwy prawa dotyczącego sytuacji nadzwyczajnych i stanów wyjątkowych, które podważają liberalno-demokratyczny nomos, który jakoby jest broniony w Europie. W trzecim posunięciu podejmuję się synoptycznego wyjaśnienia relacji między prawem, ideologią i historią walki klasowej. W czwartej i ostatniej części artykułu zamierzam ocenić obecny związek między pandemią, wyjątkiem i prawem jako szczególnym przejawem rozkładu liberalnego nomosu.

EN

In this article I propose a critical evaluation of the current European politico-legal landscape that unfolds under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. My aim is to offer an analysis of the symbolic status of legality in this context and to reflect on its historical trajectory, by introducing it in a longer historical timescale than usually proposed as well as by insisting on the specific nexus between emergency legislation and authoritarian ideologies within Europe. In doing so I propose a new genealogy of the state of exception apt to articulate the relationship between the force of law, legal normativity, and ideology in modern capitalism. The thesis that I defend here is a simple one: the ongoing pandemic has operated a historical acceleration that the law, understood here as medium that articulates power symbolically in a public and ostensible manner, is not able to catch up with. To substantiate this thesis, I venture first to take stock of the existing theories, analyses and narratives on the relation between the pandemic and the politico-legal landscape of Europe. In doing so I shall focus first on traditional constitutional law accounts and on Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s criticism of the legal responses to the pandemic. Following this analysis, I move towards a situation of the pandemic within the sphere of the multiple crises befalling Europe that have become visible since 2015. At this stage I draw attention to the manifold layers of emergency legality and states of exception that have been sapping the liberal democratic nomos putatively defended within Europe. In a third move, I embark on a synoptical clarification of the relationship between law, ideology and the history of class struggle. In a fourth and last intervention I intend to assess the current nexus between the pandemic, exception and the law as a specific form of dissolution of the liberal nomos.

Keywords

PL

COVID-19; pandemia; stan wyjątkowy; nomos; liberalizm

EN

COVID-19; pandemic; state of exception; nomos; liberalism

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Iuridica
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 96
• Pages: 83-97

Dates

published

2021

Contributors

author

Cosmin Cercel

• University of Nottingham

• https://orcid.org/0000000273270568

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Identifiers

DOI

10.18778/0208-6069.96.07

Biblioteka Nauki

2034096