Location: room 7000, SFU Harbour Centre.

My presentation will expose the principal thesis of my book that will be published next year (Les prairies ordinaires editions). It deals with the emergence of the notion of the state of exception during the gap between the wars. This theory first emerged marginally in legal doctrine concerning emergency powers, in a context of a “crisis of the parliamentary system” (“crise du parlementarisme”), which means essentially a broader anti-parliament movement. The powers of emergency and their interpretation are used therefore by conservative’s lawyers, and, obviously, Schmitt is one of them, in order to relativize the power of the Parliament and shift the balance of power in favor of the Executive.

However, this interpretation can’t explain the success of the notion of the state of exception at this current time. Also, it can’t explain further the success of the problematic Carl Schmitt, and I think that the both are linked.

The theory of the state of exception by Carl Schmitt is linked with a broader critic: those of liberalism. But liberalism doesn’t mean, not only, some kind of institutions or theories structured around the defense of individuals rights, which would have made liberal’s institutions structurally weak and unable to react adequately to a situation of crisis. At a deeper level, liberalism or the liberal mentality is a general idea of order, which comes from the liberal strategies of de-politicization against the state. This general idea of order is intrinsically depoliticized: its rationality, its neutrality, and its valorization of non-political orders (economy, culture, ethic, technology) have produced an order in which political action is closely limited; and not only for the state, as Schmitt criticized it. But also for the society, which has to react. That’s precisely why it should generate itself some situations of crisis.

This analysis helps to understand both the success of the state of exception’s notion and Carl Schmitt’s theory. Part of Schmitt’s theory can be understood as a fascist response – in particular his substantial and plebiscitary conception of democracy – to this de-politicization. But another part, more precisely the state of exception theory, offers a response to the crises which are partly produced by the liberal order itself. In other words, I will argue that the state of exception’s notion, questions the nature of the political action in a liberal order, in which it is intrinsically limited. And this could be an explanation of the actual success of Schmitt’s theory.

Marie Goupy holds a PHD in political philosophy/legal philosophy, from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (ENS-Lyon France). She is a member of the LASCO (Laboratoire Sens et Compréhension du Monde Contemporain) in the Université Paris Descartes-Sorbonne/Institut Mines-Télécom). She teaches at the Institut de Sciences Politiques de Paris, at the Institut Mines-Télécom, and at the Institut Catholique de Paris (ICP).

Her primary areas of research are philosophy of law and political philosophy. She’s specialized on the theories of the state of emergency, especially during the gap between the wars in France and in Germany. Recently, she has started a new research on the surveillance technologies and their impact on the state of emergency’s theory and practices.

Her next book being published: L’état d’exception: de la crise du libéralisme à l’usage de la crise à l’époque du libéralisme (working title), edited by Les Prairies Ordinaires.

Her recent articles include: « Les enjeux politiques de la critique du formalisme positiviste: retour sur le rôle de l’interprétation doctrinale des lois d’habilitation dans l’avènement d’une potentielle « dictature légale » sous la République de Weimar », Droits, n°57, mai 2014; « Etat de droit », in F. Hervouët, P. Mbongo et C. Santulli (dir.), Dictionnaire encyclopédique de l’Etat, Berger-Levrault, 2014; « La bienveillante neutralité des technologies d’espionnage des communications: le cas tunisien », Cultures & Conflits [En ligne], 93 | printemps 2014, mis en ligne le 08 juillet 2015. URL: http://conflits.revues.org/18863; « Etat d’exception », in V. Bourdeau et R. Merrill (dir.), Dictionnaire de théorie politique, 2012. http://www.dicopo.fr/spip.php?article131