Carl Schmitt's Early Legal-Theoretical Writings: Statute and Judgment and the Value of the State and the Significance of the Individual

274 Pages·2021·4.036 MB·English

by  Lars Vinx, Samuel Garrett Zeitlin

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Lars Vinx and Samuel Garrett Zeitlin
CARL SCHMITT’S EARLY
LEGAL-THEORETICAL
WRITINGS
statute and judgment & the value of the
state and the significance of the individual

‘TheVinx–ZeitlineditionofCarlSchmitt’sEarlyLegal-TheoreticalWritingsis
a crucial and long-awaited contribution to the study of Schmitt’s political
thought,andtolegalphilosophymoregenerally.Theseessaysexhibitayoung
Schmittgrapplingwithjurisprudentialissuesfromaliberalstatistperspec-
tive, anticipating and diverging from his later works, both famous and
notorious,inoftensurprisingways.’
JohnP.McCormick,UniversityofChicago
‘These excellent, long-overdue translations of Carl Schmitt’s widely neg-
lected – but hugely important – early contributions to legal thought
place his controversial ideas in a new and fresh light. They remind us of
a crucial fact too often obscured by recent Anglophone scholarship on
Schmitt: Schmitt was a jurist first and foremost, and thus we need to
situate his thinking within the context of modern jurisprudence in order
tomakepropersenseofit.Withaninsightfulintroductionbytwomajor
experts on Schmitt, this volume is essential reading to anyone interested
not only in Schmitt and German thought but also in modern legal
theory.’
WilliamE.Scheuerman,IndianaUniversity
‘ThisexcellenteditionofStatuteandJudgment(1912)andTheValueofthe
StateandtheSignificanceoftheIndividual(1914)notonlyshedslightontwo
pieceslargelyignoredintheliterature,butalsooffersafreshlookatSchmitt’s
constitutional theory. The editors have notably clarified the continuities
betweentheseearlylegal-philosophicalwritingsandsubsequentworkspub-
lishedaftertheFirstWorldWar,whichweremarkedinacompletelydifferent
contextbythesocialandpoliticalinstabilityoftheirtime.’
SandrineBaume,UniversityofLausanne
‘Lars Vinx and Samuel Zeitlin’s meticulous edition of Schmitt’s first
substantial writings on jurisprudence equip an anglophone readership
for the first time to see the trajectory of his thinking over the course of
his lifetime, in a balanced and accurate way. It has the singular merit of
enabling them to judge soberly just how he chose to use the intellectual
resources open to him in deploying them across the drastically changing
political contexts of his lengthy life. It is an indispensable resource for
judging the weight (and the often erratic bearing) of his contribution to
political understanding.’
JohnDunn,UniversityofCambridge
‘Carl Schmitt’s early jurisprudential engagements in German debates over
legaldeterminacyhelpedtopavethewayforhisclassicworksofpoliticaland
legaltheory.Aclearandsophisticatedintroductionaugmentstheexcellent
translationthatLarsVinxandSamuelZeitlinhaveproduced,andtheresults
areindispensableasinterestinSchmittshowsnosignsofabating.’
SamuelMoyn,YaleLawSchool
‘Lars Vinx and Sam Zeitlin have given us a welcome translation of Carl
Schmitt’s early – that is, pre-World War I – writings, along with a very
informativeandanalyticallyimportantintroduction.Whyshouldwecare?
CarlSchmitthasinthelastthirtyyearsbecomeunavoidable–inpolitical
theory,jurisprudence,historyand,even,literature.Thisisdespitehiswell-
knownandapparentlyunrepentedmembershipintheNaziParty.
As Vinx and Zeitlin point out, Schmitt is best known for his opening
sentences.“Sovereignishewhodecidesontheexception.”“Theconceptof
the state presupposes the concept of the political.” These epigrammatic
pronouncements date from the post-World War I period and have served
as a springboard for a number of interpretations. For some, these under-
standingspreparethewayforandmergeeasilywithNazism.Forsomemore
sympathetic others, they show that Schmitt was centrally concerned with
dealingwiththeconsequencesofWorldWarIonGermandomesticpolitics.
Amongthoseconsequenceswerethe“stabintheback”accountofGermany’s
defeatandthevengefulpeaceimposedatVersailles.Bothofthesereadings,
however,understandSchmittasintheendanideologuewhosethoughtwas
primarilyshapedbyexternalevents.
Itistheachievementofthisvolumetoshowthatneitherofthesepositionsis
tenable.Itshowsthat,wellbeforeWorldWarI,Schmittwasworkingoutthe
basicelementsofwhatwillbecomehisbetter-knownwork.Theargumentin
StatuteandJudgment(GesetzundUrteil)isthat“law”(Recht)isdecision,and
thatlegaldecisionsareonthatwhichcannotberesolvedinausualmanner.
Recht decides the undecidable. Thus, from his earliest work, Schmitt was
workingoutwhatbecomesapowerfulandtroublingpoliticaltheory,andthis
well before the problems and stresses of Weimar. It is not what becomes
Nazism,butitisnotincompatiblewithwhatNazismmighthavebeen–and
thatisallthemorereasonfortakingSchmittseriously.’
TracyB.Strong,SouthamptonUniversity
’
CARL SCHMITT S EARLY
LEGAL-THEORETICAL WRITINGS
ManyofCarlSchmitt’smajorworkshavebynowbeentranslated,with
two notable exceptions: Schmitt’s two early monographs Statute and
Judgment (first published in 1912) and The Value of the State and the
SignificanceoftheIndividual(firstpublishedin1914).Inthesetwoworks,
Schmittpresentsatheoryofadjudicationandanaccountofthestate’srole
intherealizationoftheruleoflaw,whichtogetherformthetheoretical
basis on which Schmitt later developed his political and constitutional
theory. This new book makes these two key texts available in English
translationforthefirsttime,partneredwithanintroductionthatrelates
the texts to their historical context, to Schmitt’s other works and to
contemporarydiscussionsinlegalandconstitutionaltheory.
lars vinx isUniversityLecturerinJurisprudenceattheUniversityof
Cambridge.HeistheauthorofHansKelsen’sPureTheoryofLaw:Legality
andLegitimacy(2007),andalsopreparedanEnglish-languagetranslation
of the debate between Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt on constitutional
guardianship (The Guardian of the Constitution: Hans Kelsen and Carl
SchmittontheLimitsofConstitutionalLaw,2015).
samuel garrett zeitlin isHongKongLinkEarlyCareerResearch
Fellow and College Lecturer in Politics at Corpus Christi College,
UniversityofCambridge.Hispublicationsincludeeditionsandtransla-
tionsofCarlSchmitt’sLandandSea(2015)andTheTyrannyofValues
andOtherTexts(2018),aswellasarticlesinHistoryofPoliticalThought,
TheReviewofPolitics,PolitischesDenkenJahrbuch,HistoryofEuropean
IdeasandModernIntellectualHistory.
cambridge studies in constitutional law
Theaimofthisseriesistoproduceleadingmonographsinconstitutional
law.Allareasofconstitutionallawandpubliclawfallwithintheambitof
theseries,includinghumanrightsandcivillibertieslaw,administrative
law,aswellasconstitutionaltheoryandthehistoryofconstitutionallaw.
Awidevarietyofscholarlyapproachesisencouraged,withthegoverning
criterion being simply that the work is of interest to an international
audience. Thus, works concerned with only one jurisdiction will be
includedintheseriesasappropriate,while,atthesametime,theseries
will include works which are explicitly comparative or theoretical – or
both. The series editor likewise welcomes proposals that work at the
intersectionofconstitutionalandinternationallaw,orthatseektobridge
thegapsbetweencivillawsystems,theUS,andthecommonlawjurisdic-
tionsoftheCommonwealth.
SeriesEditors
DavidDyzenhaus
ProfessorofLawandPhilosophy,UniversityofToronto
ThomasPoole
ProfessorofLaw,LondonSchoolofEconomicsandPoliticalScience
EditorialAdvisoryBoard
T.R.S.Allan,Cambridge,UK
DamianChalmers,LSE,UK
SujitChoudhry,Berkeley,USA
MonicaClaes,Maastricht,Netherlands
DavidCole,Georgetown,USA
K.D.Ewing,King’sCollegeLondon,UK
DavidFeldman,Cambridge,UK
CoraHoexter,Witwatersrand,SouthAfrica
ChristophMoellers,Humboldt,Germany
AdrienneStone,Melbourne,Australia
AdamTomkins,Glasgow,UK
AdrianVermeule,Harvard,USA
Booksintheseries
Carl Schmitt’s Early Legal-Theoretical Writings: Statute and Judgment,
andTheValueoftheStateandtheSignificanceoftheIndividualEdited
andtranslated,withanintroductionandnotes,byLarsVinxandSamuel
GarrettZeitlin
Remedies for Human Rights Violations: A Two-Track Approach to
SupranationalandNationalLawKentRoach
Europe’sSecondConstitution:Crisis,CourtsandCommunityMarkusW.
Gehring
A.V.DiceyandtheCommonLawConstitutionalTradition:ALegalTurn
ofMindMarkD.Walters
Administrative Competence: Reimagining Administrative Law Elizabeth
FisherandSidneyA.Shapiro
Legal Sabotage: Ernst Fraenkel in Hitler’s Germany Douglas
Morris
ProportionalityinAction:ComparativeandEmpiricalPerspectivesonthe
Judicial Practice Edited by Mordechai Kremnitzer, Tayla Steiner and
AndrejLang
Constitutional Dialogue: Democracy, Rights, Institutions Edited by
GeoffreySigalet,GrégoireWebberandRosalindDixon
The Veiled Sceptre: Reserve Powers of Heads of State in Westminster
SystemsAnneTwomey
Vigilance and Restraint in the Common Law of Judicial Review Dean
Knight
TheAlchemists:QuestioningOurFaithinCourtsasDemocracy-Builders
TomGeraldDaly
Australia’sConstitutionafterWhitlamBrendanLim
BuildingtheConstitution:ThePracticeofConstitutionalInterpretationin
Post-ApartheidSouthAfricaJamesFowkes
DimensionsofDignity:TheTheoryandPracticeofModernConstitutional
LawJacobWeinrib
ReasonofState:Law,Prerogative,EmpireThomasPoole
BillsofRightsintheCommonLawRobertLeckey
TheGuardianoftheConstitution:HansKelsenandCarlSchmittonthe
LimitsofConstitutionalLawEditedandtranslated,withanintroduction
andnotes,byLarsVinx
Parliamentary Bills of Rights: The Experiences of New Zealand and the
UnitedKingdomJanetL.HiebertandJamesB.Kelly
Lawyering for the Rule of Law: Government Lawyers and the Rise of
JudicialPowerinIsraelYoavDotan
Balancing Constitutional Rights: The Origins and Meanings of Postwar
LegalDiscourseJaccoBomhoff
Judges on Trial: The Independence and Accountability of the English
JudiciaryShimonShetreetandSophieTurenne
ProportionalityandConstitutionalCultureMosheCohen-EliyaandIddo
Porat
The Politics of Principle: The First South African Constitutional Court,
1995–2005TheunisRoux
TheNewCommonwealthModelofConstitutionalism:TheoryandPractice
StephenGardbaum
SearchingfortheStateinBritishLegalThought:CompetingConceptionsof
thePublicSphereJanetMcLean
JudgingSocialRightsJeffKing
Proportionality: Constitutional Rights and Their Limitations Aharon
Barak
ParliamentarySovereignty:ContemporaryDebatesJeffreyGoldsworthy
’
C A R L S C H M I T T S E A R L Y
L E G A L - T H E O R E T I C A L
W R I T I N G S
Statute and Judgment
fi
and The Value of the State and the Signi cance
of the Individual
Edited and translated, with an introduction and notes, by
LARS VINX
UniversityofCambridge
SAMUEL GARRETT ZEITLIN
UniversityofCambridge
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108494489
DOI:10.1017/9781108658300
©CambridgeUniversityPress2021
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
FirstpublishedinEnglishbyCambridgeUniversityPress2021asCarlSchmitt’sEarly
Legal-TheoreticalWritings
ThiseditionisatranslationofDerWertdesStaatesunddieBedeutungdesEinzelnen,
originallypublishedinGermanbyDuncker&HumblotGmbH(3rdedition,2014)©
Duncker&HumblotGmbH,Berlin,andGesetzundUrteil:EineUntersuchungzumProblem
derRechtspraxis(3rdedition,2009)©VerlagC.H.BeckoHG,München.
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Schmitt,Carl,1888–1985.|Vinx,Lars,editor,translator,writerofadded
commentary.|Zeitlin,SamuelGarrett,editor,translator,writerofaddedcommentary.|
Schmitt,Carl,1888–1985.GesetzundUrteil.English.|Schmitt,Carl,1888–1985.DerWert
desStaates,unddieBedeutungdesEinzelnen.English.
Title:CarlSchmitt’searlylegal-theoreticalwritings:StatuteandjudgmentandtheValueof
thestateandthesignificanceoftheindividual/editedandtranslatedbyLarsVinx,
UniversityofCambridge;SamuelGarrettZeitlin,UniversityofCambridge.
Description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress,
[2021]|Series:Cambridgestudiesinconstitutionallaw|Includesbibliographicalreferences
andindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2021000632(print)|LCCN2021000633(ebook)|ISBN9781108494489
(hardback)|ISBN9781108714716(paperback)|ISBN9781108658300(ebook)
Classification:LCCK230.S352A22021 (print)|LCCK230.S352 (ebook)|DDC340/.1–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021000632
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021000633
ISBN978-1-108-49448-9Hardback
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