Ausnahmezustand

Insofar as the state of emergency threatens to become the norm, the institutions of the democratic rule of law and the constitutional balance of powers are at risk, and the line between democracy and dictatorship becomes blurred. Engaging with various theoretical approaches to the phenomenon of the state of emergency—primarily mentioning Walter Benjamin and Carl Schmitt, but also authors like Theodor Mommsen, Adolphe Nissen, and Jacques Derrida—Agamben examines the no man's land between politics and law, between the legal order and life, which most theorists tend to avoid, and sheds new light on the hidden relationship that binds law to violence.