Exceptions

European Journal of Critical Jurisprudence

Latest Issue

Periodicity Annual

Year of foundation 2024

Status active

Article languages english

Journal licence CC BY 4.0, open access

Demand fees: No

Scientific domain Social sciences, Law, Political science and public administration, International relations

Journal type Scientific

Versions: electronic

Description

Exceptions. European Journal of Critical Jurisprudence (EXC) aims to establish a forum for the critical, transdisciplinary study of the law and its ramifications in the many spheres of human social and individual life. The scope of the journal is not to redefine prescriptively what critical jurisprudence is or ought to be. As a minimum common denominator, critical jurisprudence is here envisaged as the combination of a hermeneutic of suspicion towards received legal and political narratives (especially those of legal positivism and liberal legality) with an emancipatory goal of subverting structures of domination deeply embedded in the increasingly worn-out fabric of the juridical. The Exceptions journal has been conceived as an organ of Nomos: Centre for the International Study of Law, Culture and Power, based at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland.

We invite contributions that align with the aims of the centres, including postcolonial theory, feminist jurisprudence, critical race theory, law & literature, as well as other critical theoretical engagements, cultural theory, critique of ideology, critical sociology, anthropology of law, critical comparative law, or critical legal histories. We are also keen to consider papers epistemologically written from the internal point of view of the law if coupled with a consciously critical edge.

eISSN: 3071-8538

MNiSW points: 5

DOI: 10.4467/30718538EXC

Editorial team

Editor-in-Chief:

Przemysław Tacik

Associate Editors:

Leila Brännström

Cosmin Cercel

Gian Giacomo Fusco

Tormod Otter Johansen

Alexandra Mercescu

Anna Piekarska

Publisher

Jagiellonian University in Kraków

Journal content

volume

issue

see all issues

go to the issue

2/2025

Publication date: 12.2025

Editor-in-Chief: Przemysław Tacik

Issue Editors: Przemysław Tacik, Gian Giacomo Fusco

Cover design: Gian-Giacomo Fusco. On the cover: James Sowerby, British Mineralogy (1802–17), https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/sowerby-mineralogy/

Files to download

Imprint PDF Table of Contents PDF

Issue content

A Decisionist Among the Pluralists? The Reception of Carl Schmitt in the ‘Post-Marxist Problem-Space’ and the Idea of Left Schmittianism

Hjalmar Falk

Exceptions, 2/2025, 2025, pp. 7-51

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.25.001.23172

The subject of this article is a case of so-called ‘left Schmittianism’, specifically located within the intellectual formation of post-Marxist theory. The theorists investigated, Paul Hirst (1946–2003), Chantal Mouffe (b. 1943), and Paul Piccone (1940–2004), are all three important exponents of this formation. They were also heavily engaged in the interpretation of the work of Carl Schmitt which they regarded an indispensable point of reference for renewal of left political thought. Much of the discussion regarding this reception of Schmitt’s work has focused on its theoretical and moral appropriateness. Here the focus instead falls on the historical and intellectual context of the reception rather than on moral evaluation, and the article investigates how and why these leftist intellectuals, in their own terms, entered into a conversation with Schmitt’s work. The article specifically focuses on the problematic relationship between the post-Marxists’ embrace of pluralism and Schmitt’s anti-liberal emphasis on social homogeneity, a point that has featured heavily in the critique of so-called left Schmittianism. By investigating this specific intellectual current, the article aims to contribute to the debate on the character and even existence of something called left Schmittianism more broadly. It suggests that a greater focus on active reception rather than on passive influence paints a dramatically different picture of Schmitt’s role in left political thought than that which has hitherto dominated the discussion. Ultimately, the article argues that the reception of Schmitt in this case does not challenge, but rather emanates from an acceptance of, and adjustment to, the systemic limits inherent to the post-socialist, ‘end of history’ era and its liberal-capitalist foundations, an observation in line with a wider recognition of a de-radicalization of critical theory since the late 20th century.

PDF

Obsidional Violence: Imagination and the State of Exception

Ninon Grangé

Exceptions, 2/2025, 2025, pp. 53-71

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.25.002.23173

In addition to its strictly legal meaning, which is a subject of debate among legal scholars, the state of exception can be seen as a philosophical concept. The political philosophy approach does not just provide a genealogical basis for the state of exception, but also sheds light on the process of metaphorisation from which it is derived. Since the French Revolution, the notion of a state of siege has undergone metamorphoses due to the confusion between a state of external war and a state of internal war. The political imagination thus invents an unreal state – i.e. one that does not exist – of siege of a political entity by itself. Fictionalism, or the philosophy of ‘as if’, opens up the possibility of political space understood as the creation and augmentation of reality, and a multiple understanding of political violence.

PDF

Bad Law, Worse History and the Role of the Court: Re-reading For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers

A. James Hannaford

Exceptions, 2/2025, 2025, pp. 73-115

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.25.003.23174

The narrative study of law has offered important insights through which to consider the enumeration of law, its grounding and in particular its interpretation by the Courts. In this article, I situate all of this with relation to the recent judgement of the UK Supreme Court in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers. I utilise a narrative understanding of law to deconstruct and problematise many of the premises adopted by the Supreme Court that enabled their conclusions, and, in particular, the way in which the Court leverages anachronistic precedent in order to construct a veil of legitimacy. It is from this basis that I recontextualise the judgement. In doing so, I address those perspectives which were neglected by the Supreme Court, notably any meaningful consideration of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the combined discrimination provision of the Equality Act 2010.

PDF

The Persistence of Legal Form Beyond the Unfolding of History: The Case of Legal Formalism

Anna Piekarska

Exceptions, 2/2025, 2025, pp. 117-147

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.25.004.23175

The article aims to investigate the part played by legal formalism in maintaining the continuity and coherence of the law. The legal formalism is reconstructed and analysed as one of the dominant, if not the dominant, perspectives on the law that substantially impacts the way in which the law operates. To further illustrate the part played, mechanisms enabling legal reproduction are discussed based on the examples drawn from Polish legal theory. The reconstruction of these examples serves as a basis for critiquing formalist tendencies in legal theory in general. Predominantly, the argument focuses on the concept of the law and the perception of its past construed on the basis of this concept. Elaboration of the process of abstraction that begets this concept elucidates the farther-reaching, socio-political consequences of the formalistic approach to the law.

PDF

Race in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe: How Black Lives Matter Protests Revealed Selective Silence on Anti-Roma Racism

Andrei Dragan

Exceptions, 2/2025, 2025, pp. 149-174

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.25.005.23176

This paper aims to examine how the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement resonated in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe (CESE) through a race-conscious approach. Although BLM protests were staged in many CESE capitals, they were aimed largely at solidarity with US movements, with little contextualization to systemic racial inequalities faced by Roma, arguably the largest racialized group in the region. Patterns of selective silencing of race and of externalizing issues of racial inequality become apparent when examining how protests were organized and by whom. The absence of broader support for a shift to issues faced by Roma illustrates the generalized stigma towards Roma, the lack of visibility for their experiences and their exclusion from regional debates on race. This paper instead argues that in order to effectively challenge racism in CESE, one must address the paradox that racism is denied and projected outward while simultaneously entrenched and enacted against Roma.

PDF

Powerlessness, Warfare, and the Politics of Imagination

Attilio Alessandro Novellino

Exceptions, 2/2025, 2025, pp. 175-216

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.25.006.23265

This paper analyses the role of violence and war in contemporary political structures and their impact on the relationship between society and the state. It explores power dynamics with reference to stateless Amerindian societies. Drawing on Pierre Clastres’ theories, the discussion reflects on the development of political power in non-coercive forms, highlighting how creativity and the poetic use of words can play a socio-political role, even if they cannot completely eliminate the burden of violence and bloodshed imposed by anti-coercive machinery. The analysis sheds light on the connection between the enforcement of a coercive institutional framework and the use of warfare in Western contexts. Additionally, the paper examines modern governance and counterinsurgency practices that suppress political and social dissent through violence, thereby reinforcing existing power structures. Finally, the discussion addresses how the violent elimination of spaces for anti-structure and the repression of creative forms of protest – managed by an increasingly indistinguishable amalgam of political and economic forces – is used to sustain authority, stifling alternative visions of community and collective living based on gift and creativity.

PDF

A Decisionist Among the Pluralists? The Reception of Carl Schmitt in the ‘Post-Marxist Problem-Space’ and the Idea of Left Schmittianism

Hjalmar Falk

Exceptions, 2/2025, 2025, pp. 7-51

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.25.001.23172

PDF

Obsidional Violence: Imagination and the State of Exception

Ninon Grangé

Exceptions, 2/2025, 2025, pp. 53-71

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.25.002.23173

PDF

Bad Law, Worse History and the Role of the Court: Re-reading For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers

A. James Hannaford

Exceptions, 2/2025, 2025, pp. 73-115

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.25.003.23174

PDF

The Persistence of Legal Form Beyond the Unfolding of History: The Case of Legal Formalism

Anna Piekarska

Exceptions, 2/2025, 2025, pp. 117-147

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.25.004.23175

PDF

Race in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe: How Black Lives Matter Protests Revealed Selective Silence on Anti-Roma Racism

Andrei Dragan

Exceptions, 2/2025, 2025, pp. 149-174

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.25.005.23176

PDF

Powerlessness, Warfare, and the Politics of Imagination

Attilio Alessandro Novellino

Exceptions, 2/2025, 2025, pp. 175-216

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.25.006.23265

PDF

go to the issue

1/2024

Publication date: 13.12.2024

Editor-in-Chief: Przemysław Tacik

The publication of this volume was financed by Faculty of International and Political Studies at the Jagiellonian University and Nomos Centre.

Cover design: Gian Giacomo Fusco

On the cover: Karl Blossfeldt, “Urformen der Kunst”

Files to download

Editorial Page PDF Table of contents PDF

Issue content

The Pope’s Two Bodies: A Note on Medieval Juridical Theology

Riccardo Baldissone

Exceptions, 1/2024, 2024, pp. 7-50

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.24.001.21205

The medieval Papal Revolution was the first successful attempt by a body of intellectuals to affirm what we would now call the political priority of principles. At that time, this priority was expressed in juridical and theological terms. In my essay, I start from Kantorowicz’s sidelining of medieval ecclesiastical duplications to show a more general downplaying of the cultural (and political) hegemonic role of the Papal Revolution and its long-term legacy. I trace the transformations in the European lexicon of notions such as corporation, world, body politic, theology, and abstraction to argue that the synergy between the Papal and the scribal revolution actually constructed law, theology, and politics as we know them. More in general, this synergy in its Scholastic embodiment produced our familiar image of the world as an object and a content of books. I suggest that reconsidering how the Papal Revolution both triggered and joined a series of processes that turned the page of our history may perhaps support our effort to turn the page again.

PDF

Exceptions There Are That Are Not the Case

William Watkin

Exceptions, 1/2024, 2024, pp. 51-90

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.24.002.21206

There is something essential we need to know of power that is visible only when power makes certain exceptions. Power, we are arguing, is fundamentally without content. This occluded piece of information about power is partially illuminated at every exception to a rule but appears to only be fully visible to thought when a state of exception is declared by someone in power. This seems to be the crucial point of the theories of the exception elaborated by Giorgio Agamben, Carl Schmitt and Walter Benjamin. Schmitt because the sovereign decision is content indifferent. Benjamin because it is only if you remove referential content from the terms exception and rule that you could mistake the two words for the same thing. Agamben because according to his theory of signatures, the law appears as ultimately contentless. Through a close engagement with the theories of these three authors, this article suggest that an exception is not some statement or ruling which stands outside the rule, but is the process wherein the interior of the rule, its actual rulings, is either negated or suspended. Is this what the legal exception is, the indifferentiation of law’s specific contents?

PDF

Tantalizing Liberty: Post-totalitarianism and its Relevance to the Problems of Contemporary Democracy

Tomáš Havlíček

Exceptions, 1/2024, 2024, pp. 91-114

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.24.003.21207

More than thirty years ago, the countries of the Eastern bloc experienced a significant societal rebirth in rejecting of totalitarianism. Over the years, these policies have taken steps that have led them to the current state of legal democracy and late capitalism. But every system we know has its perversions and inevitably leads to a social crisis. In his ‘state-destroying’ work The Power of the Powerless, Václav Havel presents several concepts that helped him describe the totalitarianism that the countries of the Eastern bloc experienced: ‘post-totalitarian system’, ‘post-democracy’, and ‘dissent’. This paper argues in favor of the relevance of these concepts for the contemporary world, although, it will be claimed, its cruelty and inhumanity are much more subtle than in the regimes we have known so far.
The primary objective of this article is to draw parallels between well-known totalitarian regimes and the current (neo)liberal democracy through the conceptual framework of post-totalitarianism. Originating from the period preceding the fall of the Iron Curtain, this notion takes historical evolution into account, focusing on the CEE regions post the Iron Curtain era/after the regime change. The author applies Havel’s insights and theories to analyze this historical trajectory and asserts that we inhabit a system inherently containing totalitarian elements, where the fulfillment of liberty hangs on an unreachable branch. Consequently, this study delves into the possibilities for societal development or change within today’s post-totalitarian system, by having recourse, among other arguments, to Havel’s notion of post-democracy.

PDF

Nevermore Algorithmic Justice: The Future and The End of Law

Andrej Krištofík

Exceptions, 1/2024, 2024, pp. 115-132

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.24.004.21208

This article deals with the possible impact of automated decision- making on law. It argues that such could constitute a death of the law. To demonstrate this point, the article describes the underlying technological process of machine learning. It describes its negative impact on possible future reinterpretation and development of law that reflects societal development. As such, the tools of automation represent an ideal tool for the conservation of the existing status quo. Further, this article deals with the idea that for law to be just it needs to be not only personalized but always made anew in each judgement. This is also made impossible due to the described nature of the automation which makes the law not only forever cemented in its ways, denying any contestation, but rids it of any justice, which is the legitimizing element of the laws’ violence.

PDF

From Blurred Authority To Authoritarian Capital: Rethinking the Normative Roles of States, Non-State Actors and Regimes

Monica Thiel

Exceptions, 1/2024, 2024, pp. 133-164

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.24.005.21209

It is an imperative to investigate the reasons for the rise of authoritarian states in a way that will affect global democratic stability and worldwide order within international law. Although international law primarily regulates state relations, there are no regulations that address state, non-state actors and regimes’ authoritarian practices. The article introduces authoritarian capital to highlight the development of blurred authority through 5 differing national, international and transnational phases within international law. The development of authoritarian capital from states, non-state actors and regimes from the theoretical framework in the 5 phases reveal gaps within international law to adequately address declining democracy and increasing authoritarianism within national, international and transnational norms. In addition, the advancement of international law is constrained due to an under theorized state and non-state actors use of authority within institutions and legal norms. Consequently, international law emphasizes merely state behavior and obligations rather than non-state actors as participants in the law making processes. By paying attention to the 5 differing phases of authoritarian capital, the article delivers a new and improved understanding of growing types of authoritarianism within democratic countries and non-democratic countries to help legal scholars to address state and non-state actors’ increasing authoritarianism within international law.

PDF

The Pope’s Two Bodies: A Note on Medieval Juridical Theology

Riccardo Baldissone

Exceptions, 1/2024, 2024, pp. 7-50

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.24.001.21205

PDF

Exceptions There Are That Are Not the Case

William Watkin

Exceptions, 1/2024, 2024, pp. 51-90

https://doi.org/10.4467/30718538EXC.24.002.21206

PDF

Tantalizing Liberty: Post-totalitarianism and its Relevance to the Problems of Contemporary Democracy