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

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/0208-6069.96.02

Keywords:

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

Abstract

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.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Agamben, Giorgio. 2005. State of Exception (Homo sacer II, 1). Translated by Kevin Attell. Chicago–London: The University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1134d6w.16
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1134d6w.16

Agamben, Giorgio. 2012. Opus Dei. Archeologia dell’ufficio (Homo sacer II, 5). Torino: Bollati Bolinghieri.
Google Scholar

Agamben, Giorgio. 2019. Creation and Anarchy. The Work of Art and the Religion of Capitalism. Translated by Adam Kotsko. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503609273
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503609273

Agamben, Giorgio. 2020a. “Capitalismo comunista.” Quodlibet, December 15, 2020. https://www.quodlibet.it/giorgio-agamben-capitalismo-comunista
Google Scholar

Agamben, Giorgio. 2020b. “Contagio.” Quodlibet, March 11, 2020. https://www.quodlibet.it/giorgio-agamben-contagio [Accessed: 17 June 2021].
Google Scholar

Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London–New York: Verso.
Google Scholar

Bachmann, Sascha-Dominik (Dov). Joachim Sanden. 2020. “State Responsibility for the (Public) Right to Health and Security in Times of COVID Pandemic A European Perspective.” Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law VII: 407–430.
Google Scholar

Bar-Siman-Tov, Ittai. 2020. “COVID-19 meets politics: the novel coronavirus as a novel challenge for legislatures.” The Theory and Practice of Legislation 8(1–2): 11–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1800250
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1800250

Barczak, Tristan. 2020. “La pandémie :« heure de l’exécutif » ? Regard sur le droit d’exception de la République Fédérale d’Allemagne.” Jus Politicum, November 19, 2020. http://blog.juspoliticum.com/2020/11/19/la-pandemie-heure-de-lexecutif-regard-sur-le-droit-dexception-de-la-republique-federale-dallemagne-par-tristan-barczak/ [Accessed: 17 June 2021].
Google Scholar

Benjamin, Walter. 1969a. “Some Reflections on Kafka.” In Illuminations. 141–146. Translated by Harry Zorn. New York: Schocken Books.
Google Scholar

Benjamin, Walter. 1969b. “Theses on the Philosophy of History.” In Illuminations. 253–264. Translated by Harry Zorn. New York: Schocken Books.
Google Scholar

Billig, Michael. 1995. Banal Nationalism. London: Sage.
Google Scholar

Bohoslavsky, Juan Pablo. 2020. “COVID-19, the Economy and Human Rights.” International Journal on Human Rights 30: 85–98.
Google Scholar

Borovitskaja, Aleksandra. 2020. “COVID-19: Into The Inferno.” Amsterdam Law Forum 12(3): 9–14. https://doi.org/10.37974/ALF.364
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.37974/ALF.364

Cormacaina, Ronan. Ittai Bar-Siman-Tov. 2020. “Legislatures in the Time of Covid-19.” The Theory and Practice of Legislation 8(1–2): 3–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1816017
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1816017

COVID-19 Civic Freedom Tracker. 2020. https://www.icnl.org/covid19tracker [Accessed: 17 June 2021].
Google Scholar

Drinóczi, Tímea. Agnieszka Bień-Kacała. 2020. “COVID-19 in Hungary and Poland: extraordinary situation and illiberal constitutionalism.” The Theory and Practice of Legislation 8(1–2): 171–192. https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1782109
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1782109

Dzehtsiarou, Kanstantsin. 2020. “COVID-19 and the European Convention on Human Rights.” Strasbourg Observer, March 27, 2020. https://strasbourgobservers.com/2020/03/27/covid-19-and-the-european-convention-on-human-rights/ [Accessed: 17 June 2021].
Google Scholar

El Fakhry Tuttle, Myrna. 2020. “Freedom of Movement during COVID-19.” LawNow Magazine, September 1, 2020. https://www.lawnow.org/freedom-of-movement-during-covid-19/
Google Scholar

Flood, John. 2020. “John Flood’s Random Academic Thoughts (RATs).” John Flood Blog, March 28, 2020. http://johnflood.blogspot.com/ [Accessed: 17 June 2021].
Google Scholar

Golia, Angelo Jr. Laura Hering. Carolyn Moser. Tom Sparks. 2020. “Constitutions and Contagion. European Constitutional Systems and the COVID-19 Pandemic.” MPIL Research Paper Series 42. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3727240
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3727240

Griglio, Elena. 2020. “Parliamentary oversight under the COVID-19 emergency: striving against executive dominance.” The Theory and Practice of Legislation 8(1–2): 49–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1789935
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1789935

Luhmann, Niklas. 2004. Law as a Social System. Translated by Klaus A. Ziegert. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Maxeiner, James R. 2020. “America’s COVID-19 preexisting vulnerability: a government of men, not laws.” The Theory and Practice of Legislation 8(1–2): 213–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1809173
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1809173

Mazzuoli de Oliveira, Valerio. 2020. “State International Responsibility for Transnational Pandemics The Case of COVID-19 and The People’s Republic of China.” The Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law 7: 431–468. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3584944
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3584944

Das Neves Gonçalves, Everton. 2020. “Necessária transição planetária: (in) convenientes do COVID-19 para viabilizar a benfazeja colheita futura no Brasil e na comunidade internacional de estados.” Revista Jurídica 2(59): 255–282. https://doi.org/10.21902/revistajur.2316–753X.v2i59.4091
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.21902/revistajur.2316-753X.v2i59.4091

Petrov, Jan. 2020. “The COVID-19 emergency in the age of executive aggrandizement: what role for legislative and judicial checks?” The Theory and Practice of Legislation 8(1–2): 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1788232
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1788232

Quintana, Francisco-José. Justina Uriburu. 2020. “Modest International Law: COVID-19, International Legal Responses, and Depoliticization.” The American Journal of International Law 114(4): 687–696. https://doi.org/10.1017/ajil.2020.65
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/ajil.2020.65

Schmitt, Carl. 1985. Political Theology. Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty. Translated by George Schwab. Cambridge MA–London: The MIT Press.
Google Scholar

Schmitt, Carl. 1988. The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy. Translated by Ellen Kennedy. Cambridge MA–London: The MIT Press.
Google Scholar

Serowaniec, Maciej. Zbigniew Witkowski. 2020. “Can legislative standards be subject to ‘quarantine’? The functioning of the Tablet Sejm in Poland in the COVID-19 era.” The Theory and Practice of Legislation 8(1–2): 155–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1805851
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1805851

Windholz, Eric L. “Governing in a pandemic: from parliamentary sovereignty to autocratic technocracy.” The Theory and Practice of Legislation 8(1–2): 93–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1796047
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1796047

Downloads

Published

2021-09-30

How to Cite

Tacik, P. (2021). The Blizzard of the World: COVID-19 and the Last Say of the State of Exception. Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Iuridica, 96, 17–32. https://doi.org/10.18778/0208-6069.96.02