CARL SCHMITT IN DIALOGUE WITH THE OXFORD ANALYTIC SCHOLARS: THREE CHAPTERS ON LEGAL DECISIONISM

Abstract

Carl Schmitt’s work on sovereignty and decisionism has been immensely influential in the world of political theory and jurisprudence. However, surprisingly little work has been done putting Schmitt in dialogue with jurists from the Oxford analytic tradition, the dominant tradition in Anglo-American legal philosophy. This thesis undertakes such an attempt. Three chapters examine regime transition, judicial discretion, and legal normativism under a decisionist lens. It is the ultimate opinion of this thesis that the aforementioned important questions in jurisprudence are more amply resolved through the dialectical synthesis of the analytic tradition and Schmitt’s decisionism.