This course is about the impact of the various crisis trends of recent years (the protracted crisis of liberal democracy in the North Atlantic political space, the challenges of populism, the global ecological and climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war crises) on Western legal systems. The main hypothesis of the research behind the course is that the authoritarian tendencies resulting from the crises and from the use of extraordinary means of governance have significantly transformed the concept of rule of law and the resulting normativity of liberal democracies: the rule of law has been replaced by the use of law as a political instrument, rule by law, and even by the ‘weaponisation’ of law against different social groups. The course will reconstruct how this ‘rebellion against law’ emerged from an ideological-historical perspective and gained governmental and political relevance with the advent of the era of polycrisis. The course also aims to outline how a new rule of law and a new normativity approach can be reconstructed for the future.
This course is about the impact of the various crisis trends of recent years (the protracted crisis of liberal democracy in the North Atlantic political space, the challenges of populism, the global ecological and climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war crises) on Western legal systems. In times of emergency, crises, ecological, public health and social crises (polycrisis), the strengthening of executive power is therefore a natural phenomenon, both historically and politically, as is the (constitutional) desire of legal and political systems and communities to limit the use of extraordinary measures of governance. It follows that, in modern constitutional systems, the temporary suspension of normality, of the constitutional normal state, cannot in principle be considered undemocratic, since the purpose of this drastic step is precisely to protect the status quo. In any objective emergency (especially in the case of a pandemic that is in many respects uncertain and gives rise to doubts), the question of whether governance by extraordinary means is democratic is a very difficult one. Even more so since there can be legitimate disagreements between societies and within societies about the balance between civil liberties and public health. I think that COVID-19 (and the embedding of emergency models in the ideological and historical debates of the 20th century and beyond) has shown that we need to fundamentally rethink the paradigm of exceptional governance and that we can by no means rely on absolutes. In other words, the concentration of executive power is not anti-democratic in principle, but it can easily become so without active (and of course extraordinary compared to the normal state of affairs) controls.
At the end of the course, the learner will be able to deliver own research project in the field of the course.
ANTAL, Attila: Hungary in State of Exception Authoritarian Neoliberalism from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy to the COVID-19 Crisis. Lanham, 2022.
ANTAL, Attila: The Rise of Hungarian Populism. State Autocracy and the Orbán Regime. Bingley, 2019., DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/9781838677510
ANTAL, Attila: Emergency Power in Hungary and the COVID-19. Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies, 16 (3):59-77. https://doi.org/10.22215/cjers.v16i3.3727. https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/CJERS/article/view/3727
ACKERMAN, Bruce: The Decline and Fall of the American Republic. London, 2013., DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvjnrw2p
AGAMBEN, Giorgio: Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Transl.: D. Heller-Roazen. California, 1998.
AGAMBEN, Giorgio: Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive. Transl.: D. Heller-Roazen. New York, 1999.
AGAMBEN, Giorgio: State of Exception. Chicago, 2005., DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1134d6w.16
AGAMBEN, Giorgio: The Invention of an Epidemic. Quodlibet, 2020.02.26., https://www.quodlibet.it/giorgio-agamben-l-invenzione-di-un-epidemia
BENJAMIN, Walter: Critique of violence. In BULLOCK, Marcus – JENNINGS, Michael W. (eds): Selected Writings. Vol. 1. 1913–1926. Cambridge, 1921., 1996.
BJØRNSKOV, Christian – VOIGT, Stefan: The architecture of emergency constitutions. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 16. (2018) 1., 101–127., DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/icon/moy012
COPPEDGE, Michael: Eroding regimes: What, where, and when? Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute Working paper, (2017) 57., https://www.v-dem.net/media/publications/v-dem_working_paper_2017_57.pdf
CORRADETTI, Claudio – POLLICINO, Oreste: The “War” Against Covid-19: State of Exception, State of Siege, or (Constitutional) Emergency Powers?: The Italian Case in Comparative Perspective. German Law Journal, 22. (2021) 6., 1060–1071., DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2021.48
Lectures and project presentations.
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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
