Mapping the State of Siege: Law, Crisis and the Antinomies of Liberal Legality
Mapping the State of Siege: Law, Crisis and the Antinomies of Liberal Legality

Summary/Abstract: In this article I intend to address a number of salient issues that I consider crucial to understanding and reconstructing historically the legal and symbolic frameworks specific to the dissolution of liberal legality during the interwar era in Central and Eastern Europe. Core to this endeavour is my attempt to grasp the politico-legal specificities of the institution of the state of siege against the intellectual legal historical background marking its transformation from its incipient years during the French revolution towards its apex in mid-19th century, its reception in Romanian context and its unbound use in the interwar era. Drawing on jurisprudence, constitutional theory and the historiography, my intention is to offer a critical legal reading of the concept of the state of siege and to problematise it in relation to the specificities of the rise of authoritarianism in Romania. It thus aims to open the possibility for grasping phenomenologically the features of the state of siege understood here as a constitutional device addressing crisis.

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