STATE, DEMOCRACY AND WAR: THE WARFARE IMAGINATION IN HANS KELSEN AND CARL SCHMITT

A IMAGINAÇÃO BÉLICA EM HANS KELSEN E CARL SCHMITT

Abstract

Objective: This article aims at demonstrating how Hans Kelsen’s and Carl Schmitt’s theories of law reflect the political-economical context of their time, by answering the following question: to what extent are Schmitt’s and Kelsen’s political philosophies coherent with their critiques of the effects of the war in the contemporary State?

Methodology: This question was developed by the exhibition of some elements of Kelsen’s and Schmitt’s political philosophies, as well as some of their meditations on the war. The methodology used in this research consists of a bibliographical comparison between the aforementioned theorists, in addition to secondary bibliography that helps to clarify the historical context.

Results: The authors verified that both theorists present the above-mentioned coherence in their texts. One can perceive it in Schmitt’s correspondence between his defense of the political and his conclusion that we’ve reached the end of the State’s age. One can also perceive it in Kelsen’s correspondence between his defense of democracy and his critique of the jus belli.

Conclusion: After acknowledging some contiguity in the theorists’ argumentation, the authors could conclude not only that their diagnoses of the war are linked to their political writings, but also that their very political writings have already developed the issue of the war, latently present in the historical imaginary of the 20th century’s first half.