Locke and the State of Exception: Towards a Modern Understanding of Emergency Government
Journal Article: Locke and the State of Exception: Towards a Modern Understanding of Emergency Government
Journal: European Constitutional Law Review
Date of Publication: October 19, 2010
Author: Marc de Wilde, Professor of Jurisprudence in the Faculty of Law at the University of Amsterdam
How to Cite: de Wilde M. Locke and the State of Exception: Towards a Modern Understanding of Emergency Government. European Constitutional Law Review. 2010;6(2):249-267. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1574019610200056
Introduction: Modern states have almost without exception developed constitutional arrangements to protect themselves from threats to their continued existence. The most common of these arrangements is the state of exception. The state of exception is proclaimed when the constitutional order as such is at stake, for example, at the threat of foreign invasion, civil strife, or a large-scale terrorist attack. The proclamation of the state of exception leads to a suspension of rights and a concentration of power in the executive, enabling it to respond quickly and effectively to the threat. Although the state of exception may sometimes be necessary, a problem is that those invested with emergency powers may themselves become a threat to the constitutional order meant to be defended. In fact, modern history shows numerous examples of governments using the state of exception as a pretext for violating rights or even for establishing a more authoritarian regime.
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