The International Political Thought of Carl Schmitt: Terror, Liberal ...

Notes
1 This and the following four paragraphs of exposition follow those in Dean (2006).
2 This section also follows Dean (2006).
3 Literally, unspeakable or abominable crimes such as murder or high treason. In a legal
opinion on war crimes after the Second World War, he speaks of this category of
crimes:
The brutality and bestiality of these monstrous crimes exceed the normal human
power of comprehension. They are components and manifestations of a frightful
‘scelus infandum’ in the fullest sense of this term. They are beyond the scope of all
traditional and customary measures of international and criminal law. Such crimes
set the perpetrators outside the law and make them outlaws in the fullest sense. The
order of a superior authority cannot justify or excuse such monstrous crimes; it can
at best, in a particular situation, raise the question of whether the perpetrator found
himself in a critical situation and whether this distress excuses him. In no case
should the abnormality of the crime be made the object of discussion, thereby
deflecting the monstrousness of these transgressions and diminishing the awareness
of their abnormality.
(quoted in Ulmen 1996: 108)
4 The painting St George and the Dragon by Vittore Carpaccio (1455–1526), dating
from 1502–1508, is housed at the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice. A
gallery of images of the story of St George can be found at: www.ucc.ie/ milmart/
grgwstart.html (accessed 15 June 2006).
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