Exceptionality as the Gravitational Point of the Legal: the Example of the Polish Covid-19 Legislation in the Exceptional Longue Durée
Exceptionality as the Gravitational Point of the Legal: the Example of the Polish Covid-19 Legislation in the Exceptional Longue Durée

Summary/Abstract: The paper aims to formulate a more general theory of exceptionality that would be able to address it first as a focal point within the legal and, second, as a chain of events developing in longue durée. This theory is used in order to grasp the specificity of Covid-related emergency legislation adopted in Poland in the years 2020-2022. The paper argues that this legislation can be properly understood only as a part of a long process of expansion of exceptionality that each time strives to address new self-defined necessities. The theoretical part proposes two new terms: exceptionality (which describes phenomena based on the structure of the exception, although not necessarily confined to targeted legal devices such as the state of exception) and exceptionalisation (which connotes the dynamic process of production, reproduction and reconfiguration of exceptionality within the legal system). This conceptual grid is later used in order with a view to demonstrate how exceptionality possesses its own autonomous history within the legal. Finally, theoretical conclusions are drawn from the history of Polish Covid-19 emergency legislation as a follow-up to exceptional forms of populist governing.

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