... this blog is an ongoing investigation into modes of suspension that started as a research project in Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths College in 2011 ...

Friday 22 July 2011

Exception? Sovereign is the one who decides


Commitments are binding because they rest on natural law; but in emergencies the tie to general natural principles ceases. But to what extent is the sovereign bound to laws, and to what extent is he responsible to estates? And who is supposed to have unlimited power? Who is competent to act when the legal system fails to answer the question of competence? It is precisely the exception that makes relevant the subject of sovereignty – who decides in a situation of conflict what constitutes the public interest of the state, public safety and order.

According to article 48 of the German constitution of 1919, the exception is declared by the president of the Reich but is under the control of parliament, the Reichstag, which can at any time demand its suspension. Article 48 grants unlimited power. If the individual states no longer have the power to declare the exception, then they no longer enjoy the status of states.

If measures undertaken in an exception could be circumscribed by mutual control, by imposing a time limit or by enumerating extraordinary powers, the question of sovereignty would be less significant but would not be eliminated. What characterizes an exception is principally unlimited authority, which means the suspension of the entire existing order. The exception is different from anarchy and chaos – the state remains, whereas the law recedes. Unlike the normal situation the norm is destroyed in the exception. There exists no norm that is applicable to chaos. For a legal order to makes sense, a normal situation must exist. (Notes from Carl Schmitt Political Theology)

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