The Current Situation of European Jurisprudence in the Light of Carl Schmitt’s Homonymous Text. Four Critical Topics in a Misleading but Insightful Perspective

Abstract

The magical attraction of Carl Schmitt’s texts likewise characterizes his piece The Situation of European jurisprudence. Probably no other text on this subject has enjoyed a comparable reception. The present article harnesses Schmitt’s misleading but insightful perspective in order to discuss four critical topics: the very function and scope of European jurisprudence; the specific form of reason that it represents; its autonomy and methods; and, finally, the question of German hegemony in the European legal space.

Keywords: Carl Schmitt, theory of jurisprudence, jurisprudential autonomy, jurisprudential reason, European legal scholarship, German hegemony