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34 Liverpool L. Rev. 1 (2013)

handle is hein.journals/lvplr34 and id is 1 raw text is: Liverpool Law Rev (2013) 34:1-16 DOI 10.1007/s10991-013-9126-z Critical Legal Theory's Turn to Schmitt: Not Waving but Drowning? Amanda Loumansky Published online: 17 March 2013 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract I examine the current enthusiasm among some academics, whom I shall broadly refer to as critical legal theorists (CLT), for the work of Carl Schmitt which has at times been accompanied by disenchantment with Emmanuel Levinas's ethical insights. I examine the reasons for this turn to Schmitt which I attribute to the sensitivity of CL theorists to the complaint that an over-reliance on Levinas leads to a disengaged and irrelevant discourse. I contrast their antithetical approaches through their conceptions of the Other (which in Schmitt's case is developed through his friend and enemy distinction) and explain how, together with state of exception theory; it has appeared to some CL theorists to offer a platform for exposing the liberal democratic attempt to export human rights as a violent impe- rialising mission. I argue that Schmitt's thinking represents an intellectual cul-de- sac and that Levinas continues to offer a more rewarding model of critique. Keywords Levinas - Schmitt - Human rights - National socialism Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. The title is drawn from Stevie Smith's poem 'Not Waving but Drowning' (1957) Deutsch. I use the term 'CLT' loosely here to include academics who might reject its application to themselves. For the purpose of this article I am applying it to academics who go beyond the black letter of law or traditional texts relating to their discipline to locate narratives that offer challenging perspectives to traditional discourses. A. Loumansky (E) The Law School, University of Middlesex, The Burroughs, London NW4 4BT, UK e-mail: a.loumansky@mdx.ac.uk I_ Springer

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