The International Political Thought of Carl Schmitt: Terror, Liberal ...
The International Political Thought of Carl Schmitt: Terror, Liberal ...
The International Political Thought of Carl Schmitt: Terror, Liberal ...
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214 M. Ojakangas<br />
earth’ (ibid.: 42). Law derives from land: ‘Every ontonomous and ontologically<br />
just judgement derives from land’ (ibid.: 45). To this land-bound law <strong>Schmitt</strong><br />
gives the ancient Greek name nomos. For the Greeks, nomos signified written<br />
law, but also custom and usage. Like Aristotle, however, <strong>Schmitt</strong> associates<br />
nomos with the entire order (taxis) <strong>of</strong> the polis. 11 For <strong>Schmitt</strong>, nomos is a ‘total<br />
concept’, consisting <strong>of</strong> ‘concrete order and the concrete organization <strong>of</strong> a<br />
community’ (<strong>Schmitt</strong> 1993a: 55). Unlike the decision, nomos is not therefore an<br />
exception. It is a rule, but not a rule imposed on an order. Rather it is the immediate<br />
expression <strong>of</strong> an order: ‘Nomos is the immediate form in which the political<br />
and social order <strong>of</strong> a people becomes spatially visible’ (<strong>Schmitt</strong> 2003a: 70).<br />
It is the unity <strong>of</strong> a spatial order (Ordnung) and the orientation (Ortung) <strong>of</strong> a<br />
particular community.<br />
At first glance, this turn towards the philosophy <strong>of</strong> nomos would seem to<br />
signify that <strong>Schmitt</strong> is abandoning the idea <strong>of</strong> the openness <strong>of</strong> order towards<br />
transcendence and moving instead in the direction <strong>of</strong> a more or even completely<br />
immanent approach. On the other hand, it should be remembered that although<br />
institutionalism based on a philosophy <strong>of</strong> nomos emphasizes the historical continuity<br />
<strong>of</strong> concrete institutions, <strong>Schmitt</strong> does not abandon the search for origins.<br />
All continuity presupposes an origin – and in the case <strong>of</strong> nomos this origin is the<br />
primeval act (Ur-Akt) <strong>of</strong> land appropriation (Landnahme). Thus, the order<br />
closing upon itself finds a new opening in appropriation, which interrupts the<br />
process <strong>of</strong> the closing up <strong>of</strong> immanence. Appropriation becomes a new decisionist<br />
moment, that is, simultaneously a rupture in the previous order and the constitutive<br />
event <strong>of</strong> a new spatial order (Raumordnungsakt): ‘<strong>The</strong> great primeval<br />
acts <strong>of</strong> law’ (Ur-Akte des Rechts) are ‘terrestrial localizations’ (erdgebundene<br />
Ortungen), that is, the appropriations <strong>of</strong> land and the founding <strong>of</strong> cities and<br />
colonies (ibid.: 44).<br />
According to <strong>Schmitt</strong>, land appropriation is thus the ‘primeval act in founding<br />
law’ (ibid.: 45). It is the reproductive root for the meaningfulness <strong>of</strong> history<br />
– the reproductive root <strong>of</strong> all orders and orientations. Land appropriation is<br />
found at the beginning <strong>of</strong> the history <strong>of</strong> every settled people and every commonwealth:<br />
<strong>The</strong> constitutive event [Vorgang] <strong>of</strong> land-appropriation is found at the<br />
beginning <strong>of</strong> the history <strong>of</strong> every settled people, every commonwealth,<br />
every empire. This is true as well for the beginning <strong>of</strong> every historical<br />
epoch. Not only logically, but also historically, land-appropriation precedes<br />
the order that follows from it. It constitutes the original spatial order, the<br />
source <strong>of</strong> all further concrete order and all further law.<br />
(ibid.: 48)<br />
Hence, land appropriation is the first measure (Ur-Maß) from which all subsequent<br />
measures derive. It is the primeval legal type (Ur-Typus), which founds<br />
and legitimates all subsequent law: ‘All subsequent law and everything promulgated<br />
and enacted thereafter as degrees and commands are nourished, to use