Law, life, impossibility : theorising 'Law Application' in detention centres for foreigners

The paper attempts to grasp conceptually the nature of law application in zones of confined life. Drawing upon empirical research, it uses the example of closed centres for foreigners. Approaching the topic with methods of sociology of law and legal anthropology, as well as drawing on Agamben’s conceptualisations of law and life, I would like to propose a more general understanding of the role that law plays in total institutions such as detention centres. A great majority of legal provisions pertaining to them is stipulated with the intention of defending the detainees from abuses of power. Nonetheless, the positivist view of the law which translates noble principles, enshrined in constitutions and international law, into low-rank acts and then regulates the behaviour of officers, is at odds with the practice revealed by the sociological and anthropological research. The law remains a foreign body to officers: it is acknowledged as a body of rules which officially regulate all the actions of the institution, but in truth it functions rather as the Other’s gaze. It embodies external control and the possibility of intervention. As such, it never regulates the actions per se (it is too unfamiliar to do so), but rather constitutes an external foothold which stops officers from applying all the methods of discipline that they spontaneously invent. It also provides a free object of criticism which mediates between officers’ projected goals of border guards and their expected practice. Consequently, the vision of the law as a tool that ‘regulates’ detention centres is empirically contradicted. The paper addresses this relation with the use of Agambenian conceptuality, seeking points of contact between the law and life as well asking to what degree life is lawrepellent in confined zones

Zadymka świata : COVID-19 i ostatnie słowo stanu wyjątkowemu

Celem artykułu jest ujęcie pandemii COVID-19 jako socjopolitycznej katastrofy w sensie Waltera Benjamina. Zakres i natura kryzysu związanego z COVID-19 są nam niedostępne z racji naszej bliskości do jego centrum. W tym szczególnym momencie zaciemnieniu ulegają polityczno-prawne ramy wspólnoty międzynarodowej, w których suwerenność i turbokapitalizm łączą się w celu stworzenia biopolitycznych urządzeń. W artykule dokonano przeglądu zastosowań stanu wyjątkowego w poszczególnych państwach; jego konkluzją jest ogólne zaniedbanie kwestii praworządności nawet w krajach, które głoszą do niej przywiązanie. Bez wątpienia kluczową rolę zaczęła ponownie odgrywać suwerenność - podważając parlamentaryzm oraz swobody obywatelskie w imię konieczności. Prawo międzynarodowe okazało się niezdolne nie tylko do odpowiedzi na to zjawisko, ale nawet do wyegzekwowania odpowiedzialności Chin za złamanie reguł WTO. Artykuł zamyka konkluzja, zgodnie z którą COVID-19 otworzył nowe-stare ścieżki zarządzania żywymi, które odegrają planetarną rolę w przyszłych walkach o dominację i przeobrażą funkcjonowanie kapitalizmu.The paper aims to grasp the COVID-19 pandemic as a socio-political catastrophe in the Benjaminian sense. As argued in the article, the scope and nature of the COVID-19 crisis eludes us due to our closeness to its inner core. What is obfuscated in this moment is the politico-legal framework on which the international community is based, where sovereignty and turbocapitalism join their forces to produce biopolitical devices. The paper looks into uses of the state of exception in particular countries, concluding that the rule of law in the pandemic was generally put on the back burner even by the countries that officially praise it. Sovereignty clearly returned to the stage, undermining parliamentarism and civil liberties in the sake of necessity. International law remained incapable of addressing this return, let alone of enforcing responsibility of China for infringing WHO rules. As a conclusion the paper argues that COVID-19 opened new-old paths of governing the living that will play a planetary role in the future fights for dominance and imposing a new face of capitalism

The Freedom of Lights: Edmond Jabès and Jewish Philosophy of Modernity

Edmond Jabès was one of the most intriguing Jewish thinkers of the 20th century – a poet for the public and a Kabbalist for those who read his work more closely. This book turns his writings into a ground-breaking philosophical achievement: thinking which is manifestly indebted to the Kabbalah, but in the post-religious and post-Shoah world. Loss, exile, negativity, God’s absence, writing and Jewishness are the main signposts of the negative ontology which this book offers as an interpretation of Jabès’ work. On the basis of it, the book examines the nature of the miraculous encounter between Judaism and philosophy which occurred in the 20th century. Modern Jewish philosophy is a re-constructed tradition which adapts the intellectual and spiritual legacy of Judaism to answer purely modern questions

Ernst Bloch as a non-simultaneous Jewish Marxist

The paper attempts to reassess the fundamentally paradoxical position of Ernst Bloch in 20th century philosophy in the light of the Marranic condition. Indebted, among others, to Jewish heritage and Christian tradition, Bloch considered himself primarily a Marxist. Bloch's uniqueness consists in the stunning equiponderance of the currents he drew from. Contrary to a classic model of modern Jewish philosophy, inaugurated by Hermann Cohen, Bloch's thinking does not allow of easy juxtaposition of "sources" with languages into which they were translated. In this sense, Bloch cannot be easily compared to Franz Rosenzweig, Emmanuel Levinas or even Walter Benjamin (although he bore some striking similarities with the latter). His position at least partly stems from a specific form of directness with which he often used these languages, composing his philosophy in quite an anachronist manner. For this reason his thinking - in itself "die Gleichzeitigkeit des Ungleichzeitigen", as one of his key concepts theorises - is a very modern, internally incoherent space of cross-fertilising inspirations. The paper demonstrates two levels on which Bloch's indebtedness to Judaism might be analysed and then re-assesses his Marxist affiliations as a kind of modern faith which, in a specifically Marranic manner, seals the simultaneity of the non-simultaneous

Melancholy of the law

The paper attempts to construct a theoretical account of what melancholy - in a psychoanalytical and cultural sense - may mean for jurisprudence. It argues that the map of relations and displacements between the object and the subject that is associated with melancholy in diferent psychoanalytical approaches can be fruitfully adopted for understanding of normativity. Based on a thorough re-reading of Freud's Trauer und Melancholie (Mourning and Melancholy), it suggests that there is an irremovable component of melancholy contained in the primordial act of separation of normativity from non-normative reality. This interpretation is confronted with Kelsen’s Theory of Pure Law in order to analyse in which respect the momentum of self-sufciency within normativity entails structures of melancholy. Kelsen’s concept of 'efectiveness' is proposed as a key link which explains how melancholic withdrawal allows the law to interact with reality. Then the paper discusses Agamben's theory of applicability and of the state of exception to demonstrate the law's melancholic trap. Finally, the paper draws on Lacanian and post-Lacanian approaches to melancholy in order to investigate how melancholic momentum is inherent in the very structure of the law's validity

Bernhard : Nestbeschmutzer and compulsion of repetition against power

Celem artykułu jest zmierzenie się z klasycznym enfant terrible austriackiej kultury - Thomasem Bernhardem - z jednoczesną próbą zadania pytania o relacje pomiędzy wymogiem prawdomówności a prawowitym Nestbeschmutzungiem. Bernharda często dezawuowano jako pełnego sarkazmu i złośliwości szaleńca, który z niesprawiedliwego obrażania wspólnoty czerpał przyjemność. Tymczasem, jak staram się pokazać w tekście, demaskacja wspólnotowej przemocy działa u Bernharda na o wiele głębszym poziomie niż prosto pojęta paresia. Proza Bernharda przyjmuje strukturę fugi, w której bohaterowie zmagają się z problemem swojego jednoczesnego upodmiotowienia i uprzedmiotowienia. To właśnie struktura owej fugi pełni funkcje demaskatorskie i parezjastyczne, o wiele istotniejsze niż wmieszane w nią "oszczercze" treści. W ostatecznej instancji jest strategią przeciwstawienia się obezwładniającej władzy i próbą poszukiwania upodmiotowienia poza jej zasięgiem.The paper addresses the work of an enfant terrible of the post-war Austrian culture, Thomas Bernhard, by posing questions about the relation between veridiction and a proper Nestbeschmuzung. Bernhard was frequently downplayed as a sarcastic and spiteful madman who drew sick pleasure from insulting his community. Nonetheless, as I demonstrate in the paper, the unveiling of systemic violence in Bernhard’s oeuvre reaches much deeper than just paresia. Bernhard’s prose has a structure of the fugue in which protagonists struggle with their own subjectification and objectification. It is precisely this structure of the fugue that possesses unmasking and paresiastic functions that go beyond the role of insults which make up a good part of the content this structure gives a form to. Ultimately, the fugue is a strategy to counter the overwhelming power and seek the subjectification outside of its realm

Initial data for black hole-neutron star binaries, with rotating stars

The coalescence of a neutron star with a black hole is a primary science target of ground-based gravitational wave detectors. Constraining or measuring the neutron star spin directly from gravitational wave observations requires knowledge of the dependence of the emission properties of these systems on the neutron star spin. This paper lays foundations for this task, by developing a numerical method to construct initial data for black hole--neutron star binaries with arbitrary spin on the neutron star. We demonstrate the robustness of the code by constructing initial-data sets in large regions of the parameter space. In addition to varying the neutron star spin-magnitude and spin-direction, we also explore neutron star compactness, mass-ratio, black hole spin, and black hole spin-direction. Specifically, we are able to construct initial data sets with neutron stars spinning near centrifugal break-up, and with black hole spins as large as $S_{\rm BH}/M_{\rm BH}^2=0.99$.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figure

A New Popular Front, or, on the Role of Critical Jurisprudence under Neo-Authoritarianism in Central-Eastern Europe

The current decade brought a neo-authoritarian wave to the countries in CEE. This process, which in certain respects runs parallel to the populist upsurge in Western countries, has its own specificity. Firstly, by focusing on the clash between “elites” and “the people”, it rekindles – in a displaced, right-wing form – the class conflict which before 1989 was an ideological staple in CEE countries. Secondly, insofar as neo-authoritarianism in CEE has often a distinctly neo-liberal agenda shadowed by declarative anti-globalism and national chauvinism, it warps the field of political struggle. Thirdly, in the neo-authoritarian turn law becomes the crucial field of ideological fight, principally in those countries where populists came to power. In this respect, new governments in CEE resort to a blend of old Fascist tools (such as dismantling of constitutional control and denying the primacy of international law) and new inventions (such as the effective state of exception in some areas of law in Poland introduced in 2015–18). The role of critical jurisprudence in CEE is therefore particularly significant and difficult. The paper argues that liberal jurisprudence, although actively engaged in analysing neo-authoritarianism, does not possess adequate conceptual tools for full success. Therefore critical jurisprudence should urgently take part in explaining neoauthoritarianism in the legal field

Fundamental rights protection in the European Union after the Treaty of Lisbon : an appraisal

The paper attempts to provide an appraisal of the ten years that passed since the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon in the context of fundamental rights protection. The Lisbon Treaty introduced some major reforms in this field: (1) the new declaration of EU's values (Art. 2 TUE), (2) granting binding force to the Charter of Fundamental Rights and (3) imposition of the EU's obligation to accede to the ECHR. Results of these reforms are ambiguous. On the one hand, the number of references to the CFR in the CJEU's jurisprudence significantly increased, while the Charter was used for the first time to declare invalidity of an act of secondary law. On the other hand, the EU's accession to the ECHR - after initial successes of the negotiation process - was blocked by the Opinion 2/13 of the CJEU and it is hardly possible that it will happen in the envisageable future. Moreover, currently the EU struggles with an anti‑European and populist wave which erodes the authority of fundamental rights protection

Edmond Jabès and Jewish philosophy of modernity

Praca ma dwa podstawowe cele. Po pierwsze, stanowi filozoficzne opracowanie myśli Edmonda Jabèsa, poety i myśliciela, którego dzieło było dotąd analizowane głównie z punktu widzenia literaturoznawstwa. Zadaniem pracy jest wykazanie, że z pism Jabèsa można wyinterpretować oryginalną i spójną filozoficzną koncepcję, w wielu miejscach antycypującą Derridiańską dekonstrukcję, ale stanowiącą własną odpowiedź poety na stan powojennej kultury i humanistyki. Filozofia Jabèsa eksploruje wątki wycofania Boga, nieobecności jako podstawy istnienia, pisania, urastającego do rangi modelu wszelkiego stworzenia. W pracy przedstawiono również mesjanistyczny aspekt Jabèsowskiego myślenia - a także związki między pisaniem a judaizmem, stale przewijające się w pismach poety. Wiele z kategorii, które Jabès stosował dość luźno, zostało w pracy precyzyjnie zinterpretowanych i poddanych procesowi abstrakcji; dzięki temu Jabès jawi się jako postać równorzędna innym myślicielom drugiej połowy dwudziestego wieku. Drugi cel tej pracy polegał na przemyśleniu powinowactwa myśli Jabèsa ze współczesną mu filozofią i szeroko pojętą humanistyką, szczególnie w zakresie reinterpretacji żydowskiego dziedzictwa. Punktem oparcia dla tych rozważań jest zaproponowana w pracy koncepcja żydowskiej filozofii nowoczesności, która stara się wyjaśnić mechanizm rekonstrukcji judaizmu w nowoczesnej, w szczególności dwudziestowiecznej filozofii.The dissertation has two main purposes. Firstly, it aims to provide a philosophical reconstruction of the philosophy of Edmond Jabès, the poet and thinker whose work has been hitherto interpreted mainly by literature researchers. The dissertation attempts to prove that Jabès' writings contain an original and coherent philosophy, in various respects anticipating Derrida's deconstruction, yet constituting a poet's distinct answer to post-war philosophy and broadly construed humanities. Jabès' philosophy develops ideas such as withdrawal of God, absence as the ground for being, as well as writing assuming the role of a universal model of creation. Moreover, the dissertation reconstructs the messianic aspect of Jabèsian thinking and explicates links between writing and Judaism, to which Jabès often refers. Manifold categories that Jabès used metaphorically were strictly interpreted and subjected to abstraction, so that his thinking could stand comparison to works of classic philosophers of the 20th century. The second purpose of the dissertation was to analyse affinities between Jabès' thinking and contemporary philosophy, with special regard to the reinterpretation of Jewish heritage. In order to cast light on them, a new term was coined: Jewish philosophy of modernity. Its purpose is to explain how Judaism has been reconstructed in modern, particularly 20th century philosophy