Hospitality and the Modern Constitution

This article focuses on Derrida’s Hospitality I seminar to explore its implications for the modern constitution, more specifically for debates in constitutional theory about constitutional identity. It does so by looking closely at Derrida’s analyses in the seminar of ipseity, the uncanny, Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus, and the political. Applied to the modern constitution, the analysis suggests that the latter can be viewed as starting with a scene of hospitality, by stating that “We” who have the power, mastery, and sovereignty, are setting the rules of hospitality for this territory. Yet, the analysis also indicates that the “We” is at the same time saying “Here We Are,” presenting themselves as hostage and pledge for everyone and everything.

constitutional identity · Hospitality · ipseity · Jacques Derrida · modern constitutions · Oedipus at Colonus · Politics · Sophocles · Sovereignty · the uncanny · Comparative constitutional jurisprudence studies · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Political Theology and Sovereignty

• Concept of the Political

  Carl Schmitt, George Schwab et al.•Concept of the Political•2008

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• Points

  Jacques Derrida•Points...•1995

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