State of exception

Abstract

In his Political Theology, Carl Schmitt established the essential proximity between the state of exception and sovereignty. But although his famous definition of the sovereign as "he who decides on the exception" has been commented on many times, we still lack a genuine theory of the state of exception within public law. The paper will try to lift the veil that covers this uncertain terrain between, on the one hand, public law and political fact, and on the other, legal order and life. Therefore is necessary to grasp the significance of this difference, or presumed difference, between the political and the legal.