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This article aims to provide the basis for a theoretical framework conceptualising Romanian fascist ideology at work in relation to law and politics, by focusing on the way it operated within the movement's understanding of foundational concepts of state power, sovereignty and justice. In doing so, I investigate the relationship between fascism, understood here as both an ideology and a political movement, and constitutional law in the context of interwar Romania. I ask how the ideology – that is, the doctrinal body of Romanian ultranationalism, as well as political practice – related to core constitutional concepts such as sovereign power and popular sovereignty. Accordingly, I map the nexus between law and politics within the ideology of the Romanian main ultranationalist movement – the Legion of Archangel Michael and its paramilitary branch, the Iron Guard.

This paper explores the philosophical, political and memorial consequences of the contemporary status of law present in the work of Giorgio Agamben with specific reference to the field of legal history. My intention is to offer a genealogical reading of the relation between Agamben's theory of the state of exception animating his political and legal philosophical writings in the Homo Sacer trilogy and his earlier interest in the philosophy of language and history. While exploring this path, I shall follow his indictment of modernity construed as a drive fracturing the relation between knowledge and experience. By further analyzing the destruction of experience as a feature of modern times, I intend to map out the political and legal consequences of the crisis of authority befalling our contemporary nomos, one which is inherently connected to the decoupling between narrative and experience. In this way, I aim to provide a broader philosophical context to Agamben's concept of the state of exception which otherwise tends to be disregarded within receptions of his work in the field of legal studies. In a first part, I shall map the relevance of Agamben's concept of the state of exception as an intellectual tool for approaching the contemporary status of law as well as its historical unfolding. Secondly, I shall insist on Agamben's understanding of the destruction of experience as a feature of a modern intellectual dynamics dissolving the traditional structures of knowledge and the production of authority. In a third part, I shall explore the consequences of Agamben's reading of the dissolution of law and the destruction of experience for the writing of legal history.

The proposed chapter aims to further the engagement with the past by bringing to the fore the legal and memorial dynamics at work in the post war trials dealing with Romanian participation to the Holocaust. While work in this area of Romanian legal history is still exploratory, this chapter aims at filling a gap in relation to understanding the constitutional, jurisprudential and ideological aspects of the Antonescu trial. In doing so it also aims to reflect on the legal, political and symbolic consequences entailed by the communist attempts at dealing with Romanian participation to the Holocaust. In this sense, this chapter attempts for the first time to articulate jurisprudentially and historically the significance of the trial of the Romanian military dictator in office between 1940 and 1944.

The aim of this chapter is to offer a critical analysis of the uses of criminal law in the context of the royal dictatorship and the rise of fascism in Romania during the 1930s. It explores the effacement of traditional categories of legality entailed by the emergence of the Criminal Code of 1936, by focusing on the notion of crimes against the constitutional order and its intricate relation to the socio-political context of the time. In this sense this chapter investigates critically and historically the relation between criminal law, constitutional law and the rise of fascism in Romania while stressing three crucial and overlooked elements: the ideological tenets of the Code present both in its substantial and formal structure, the politico-legal significance of the Code in the historical moment of its enactment, and the erosion of classical forms of legality determined by the Code's ideological appropriation. Moreover, it tackles the question of continuity between democratic legislation and authoritarian law.

The aim of this article is to problematize one of the most audacious tenets of the new consensus, namely the revolutionary character of fascism, by linking together the experience of the state of siege and the emergence of the fascist movement in interwar Romania. It tries to do so by drawing on the philosophical underpinnings of the paradigm of the state of exception developed by Giorgio Agamben and Walter Benjamin's critique of law and violence. In a first part my aim is to present the main arguments espoused in defending the view according to which fascist movements were professing an authentic revolutionary radical politics. Secondly, I will turn towards legal critique and to the work of Giorgio Agamben in order to build a topography of the relation between law and the force of state. In a third part I will focus on the uses and the historical meaning of the state of siege in post-First World War Romania. This article argues that the emergence of the fascist movement in Romania is an event strongly embedded in the political, legal and symbolic dynamics entailed by the state of exception rather than the expression of a revolutionary thrust.

The aim of this article is to problematize one of the most audacious tenets of the new consensus, namely the revolutionary character of fascism, by linking together the experience of the state of siege and the emergence of the fascist movement in interwar Romania. It tries to do so by drawing on the philosophical underpinnings of the paradigm of the state of exception developed by Giorgio Agamben and Walter Benjamin's critique of law and violence. In a first part my aim is to present the main arguments espoused in defending the view according to which fascist movements were professing an authentic revolutionary radical politics. Secondly, I will turn towards legal critique and to the work of Giorgio Agamben in order to build a topography of the relation between law and the force of state. In a third part I will focus on the uses and the historical meaning of the state of siege in post-First World War Romania. This article argues that the emergence of the fascist movement in Romania is an event strongly embedded in the political, legal and symbolic dynamics entailed by the state of exception rather than the expression of a revolutionary thrust.

Preliminary Material /Cosmin Sebastian Cercel and Cihan Ozpinar -- 'Where is the Law?': Legal Discourse and Ideology in Interwar Romania /Cosmin Sebastian Cercel -- Liberalism Today: The Challenges Posed by Plural Societies /Carla Larouco Gomes -- Transnational Internal Security, Democracy and the Role of the State /Ronan Kaczynski -- A Story about a Victim and a Demon /Ayşegül Sabuktay -- Policing Dissent: Authoritarian Reformulation of the State in AKP's Turkey /Cemil Yildizcan and Cihan Ozpinar -- Good Government: The United States Shapes a New Zealand Politician /Raymond Richards -- Does Service Delivery Influence the Voting Choices Made by Voters during Local Government Elections? An Anthropological Investigation Conducted in the Municipal Wards of the Botshabelo Township in the Mangaung Metropolitan Area /Jan Petrus van der Merwe.

"Combining insights from comparative legal theory, jurisprudence and legal history, this collection examines the legal and constitutional identity of Central and Eastern Europe. Although the various countries of Central and Eastern Europe have often compared themselves to the West, the failure of these countries to engage with one another has resulted in a whole spectrum of legal identities remaining hidden. This book takes up a comparison of such identities within the region of Central and Eastern Europe, and following from the prima facie similarity between the region's countries, given the experience of communism and legal transfers. The book thereby illuminates, through comparisons, the distinct legal identities of the 16 Central and Eastern European states; whilst, at the same time, arguing for a shared Central and Eastern European legal identity. This book will appeal to scholars and students in the area of comparative law, as well as lawyers, political scientists, sociologists and historians with particular interests in Central and Eastern Europe"--

This book addresses the relevance of the state of exception for the analysis of law, while reflecting on the deeper symbolic and jurisprudential significance of the coalescence between law and force. The concept of the state of exception has become a central topos in political and legal philosophy as well as in critical theory. The theoretical apparatus of the state of exception sharply captures the uneasy relationship between law, life and politics in the contemporary global setting, while also challenging the comforting narratives that uncritically connect democracy with the tradition of the rule of law. Drawing on critical legal theory, continental jurisprudence, political philosophy and history, this book explores the genealogy of the concept of the state of exception and reflects on its legal embodiment in past and present contexts - including Weimar and Nazi Germany, contemporary Europe and Turkey. In doing so, it explores the disruptive force of the exception for legal and political thought, as it recuperates its contemporary critical potential. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in the field of jurisprudence, philosophy and critical legal theory.