Existential Openness in Law

This book explores Carl Schmitt's early legal writings and their hermeneutic essence. It underscores human existential openness and its impact on law. The text identifies two pitfalls in juridico-hermeneutic practice: scientism and legal romanticism. Schmitt's awareness of and response to these issues are central themes.

This book delves into Carl Schmitt's early legal works and explores their hermeneutic nature. Drawing on the insights of the giants of existential hermeneutics, such as Heidegger and Gadamer, we illuminate the essence of hermeneutic thought - the existential openness inherent in us as human beings - and then examine its implications for Carl Schmitt's early legal thought. The journey that this text embarks on reveals that the openness inherent in human beings inevitably extends to the legal phenomenon. This realisation exposes two potential pitfalls or flawed appropriations within juridico-hermeneutical activity. First, there's the scientism that restricts law strictly to positive legislation, depriving it of its broader scope. Second, there's what might be called legal romanticism, in which the interpreter, on the basis of whim and subjectivity, dictates what the law means. The book delves into Schmitt's early works, highlighting his awareness of these extremes and the ways in which he addresses them.

Autorentext

Diego Pérez Lasserre is a researcher at the Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Sociales of Universidad San Sebastián, Valdivia (Chile). He holds a degree in Law from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, a Master's in Contemporary Thought from Universidad Diego Portales, and a PhD in Philosophy jointly awarded by Universidad Diego Portales and FernUniversität in Hagen.

Inhalt

Introduction - Hermeneutics and law: Heidegger and Gadamer - Carl Schmitt "the soldier" - Carl Schmitt "the Artist" - Towards the middle way in legal thought - Conclusions - Epilogue - Bibliography