- Justitium
Justitium is a
concept ofRoman law , equivalent to the declaration of thestate of emergency . It was usually declared following a sovereign's death, during the troubled period of "interregnum ", but also in case of invasions. However, in this last case, it was not as much the physical danger of invasion that justified the instauration of a state of exception, as the consequences that the news of the invasion had inRome - for example, "justitium" was proclaimed at the news ofHannibal 's attacks.According to
Giorgio Agamben , "justitium" progressively came to mean, after theRoman Republic , the public mourning of the sovereign: a sort of privatization or diversion of the danger threatening the "polis ", as the sovereign claimed for himself the "auctoritas " necessary to the rule of law.See also
* "
Auctoritas "
*Giorgio Agamben
* "Interregnum "
*State of emergency References
* Giorgio Agamben, "State of Exception", 2005.
External links
* [http://web.upmf-grenoble.fr/Haiti/Cours/Ak "The Roman Law Library" by Professor Yves Lassard and Alexandr Koptev]
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