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13 Bull. Austl. Soc. Leg. Phil. 253 (1989)
Coups D'Etat and Law

handle is hein.journals/ajlph13 and id is 261 raw text is: COUPS D'ETAT AND LAW Charles Sampford* 1 INTRODUCTION This year it is natural for discussion of revolution and legal discontinuity to turn to the French Revolution of 200 years ago. Recent events in the Philippines, Burma and China reinforce the importance of popular revolutions that are inspired by hopes of fundamental social change. The French Revolution is not only the archetype and the inspiration of all modern revolutions: it can be seen as one of the key chapters of modernity itself. However, it was not the only form of violent legal discontinuity which achieved it first modem expression in late eighteenth century France. Napoleon Bonaparte's overthrow of the Directory1 was the first of a long line of modern usurpations by the use of military force.2 There are several reasons we should be interested in the phenomenon. On a theoretical level, it has the potential to tell us much about law and the BA Hons (Melb), LLB Hons (Melb), D Phil (Oxford), Research Fellow, Monash Law Faculty and Senior Lecturer, Law School, Melbourne University, President, Victorian Society of Legal Philosophy (the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Society of Legal Philosophy. This article is developed from a much shorter paper presented to the World Congress in Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, Edinburgh, August 1989 which will be published in a volume of essays to be edited by Elspeth Attwooll and published by Aberdeen University Press in 1990. The arguments will in turn be expanded into a book which will detail the varieties, causes and complexities of coups d'etat and the strategies that may be adopted to deter and defeat them. 1 Nov 9, 1799 (18e Brumaire) 2 Of course, usurpations were common in monarchies. There are several features that differentiate them from modem coups. First, the asurpers are not confined to someone with a claim to the throne and some blood link to legitimate incumbents or heirs. It could be argued that the greater number of possible coup makers and the greater legitimacy of violent change conferred by the initial revolution make coups more likely. Secondly, as the purpose was to replace the incumbent, a relatively simple murder was sufficient. In modern coups it is usually a group or institution that is being replaced and a group that replaces it. Third, as the state is a more complex institution than in monarchical and feudal Europe, less force had to be applied to effect a change. The more complex modern state requires more force to move it but the modem state provides the very institution with which this can be achieved - the Army.

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