Carl Schmitt on land and sea

Bibliographic Data

ID11345606
AuthorsJoshua Derman (0000-0003-2041-7586, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume37
Issue2
Pages181-189
Publication date2011-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory of European Ideas (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0191-6599 • E-ISSN: 1873-541X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2010.11.010
OpenAlexW1969462367
LanguageEN
Citations received14

Carl Schmitt (1888-1985), one of the leading conservative legal thinkers of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany, is best known today for his critique of liberalism. Between the late 1930s and mid-1950s, Schmitt wrote numerous articles and two books addressing the mythical and geopolitical significance of land and sea. In recent years, these texts have begun to attract attention from historians as well as theorists. This article reconstructs the origins of Schmitt's theories about land and sea, and shows how they developed in the context of his efforts to delegitimize the British Empire and justify the persecution of Jews. It also explains how Schmitt selectively misread the history of maritime law in order to critique the 'freedom of the seas.' Finally, it reveals that the meaning Schmitt ascribed to 'the opposition of the elements of land and sea' changed dramatically to suit his political needs. For all their evocative qualities and insights, Schmitt's texts on land and sea do not constitute a coherent theory, but rather a shifting field of polemical positions in search of theoretical support

Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Empire · Epistemology · Liberalism · Nazism · Opposition (politics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought

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