Introduction Up against Carl Schmitt 1
PART Ⅰ Law as ideology and politics 7
Chapter 1 An afterlife for Carl Schmitt? 9
Contemporary relevance? 18
Chapter 2 On politics, law and ideology 28
The politics of law and the law of politics 29
Law as an ideological practice involving depoliticisation 34
Liberal ideologies of legality 36
Difficulties and contradictions with liberal ideologies 51
An unduly narrow definition of law 51
Exaggerating the determinacy of legal doctrine 56
Devaluing discretion 61
Interpretative naivete? 62
Misinterpreting the judicial role? 64
The politics of ideological depoliticisation 71
The contradictions of liberal-positivism? 76
Liberal cosmopolitan ideologies 78
Ideologies of humanity 82
Law as authority, interpretation and power 92
Conclusion 119
PART Ⅱ Schmitt on the role and analysis of myths and counter-myths 121
Introduction 121
Chapter 3 Mobilising direct political action: Sorel, myths and counter-myths 128
Chapter 4 Myths of parliamentarism 133
Chapter 5 Leviathan: a political myth misfired? 140
Hobbes as a case study of the importance of studying political myth-making 141
Correcting Hobbes: contrasting meanings of leviathan 145
The possibility of myth misfiring 146
Leviathan as counterproductive? 148
The slaying of leviathan 155
A fatal concession to liberal individualism? 157
Liberalism’s illiberal outcomes 164
Leviathan’s instructive failure? 169
Conclusion to Hobbes 171
Chapter 6 Hamlet as an instructive prototype of a political myth? 173
Hamlet as a corrective to leviathan? 173
Studying Hamlet’s implications: themes and questions 174
Myth and other cultural forms 176
Myth as an ethos of ethnicity? 177
Staging Hamlet’s off-stage history? 179
A Hamlet -James couplet? 183
Schism as religion 184
Hamlet signifying sovereignty in crisis? 185
Staging political theatre 186
Deciding against indecision 190
Politicising Hamlet’s depoliticisation? 191
Hamlet’s audience as co-authors? 197
Chapter 7 Political myths underpinning democracy 206
Myths of national identity 225
Dangerous political myths: Marxism, Fascism and Liberalism 236
Taking stock of general lessons: a Schmittian concept of the mythical? 248
Conclusion 264
Bibliography 279
Index 290