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This book presents an insight into the relationship between liberal democratic legality and responding to extreme situations.
The uneasy relationship between liberal democracy’s rule of law and extraordinary measures by government have long provided a premise for contentious legal and political discourse. It is amidst this densely treaded theme, whereby this book turns to Europe’s democratic past in an attempt to mitigate any seemingly irrevocable conflicts. Largely overlooked, and yet ultimately the primary source of the contemporary liberal democratic legal order, democracy appears as a legal reality that advocates for its own principles in response to extreme threats.
From the floors of the National Convention in Paris during the French revolutionary years of the late 18th century, Roman legal principles would be espoused by Robespierre and his contemporaries when heralding in the ‘new’ legal reality of democracy. Voices from Paris and the National Assembly of today on the other hand embrace principles of canon law when advocating for extraordinary ‘necessary measures’ that ultimately rely upon a determination of the ‘public common good’ when responding to extreme situations.
In recognizing the contrast between ‘democratic-revolutionary tradition’s’ reliance upon Roman legal principles, as opposed to ‘constitutional monarchy tradition’s’ reliance upon canon law principles, this book presents to the reader a unique opportunity to understand how contemporary European legal tradition ultimately arises as a result of two legal worlds.
