BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Harvard Law School//NONSGML Events//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-WR-CALNAME:Harvard Law School - Events X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://hls.harvard.edu/calendar/ X-WR-CALDESC:Harvard Law School - Events BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20251028T1523Z-1761665000.5636-EO-730258-1@10.73.7.237 STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTAMP:20260501T031703Z CREATED:20251028T145233Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260323T191408Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251121T121500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251121T131500 SUMMARY: “Law\, Sovereignty\, and Political Theology: Jewish Thought in Con versation with Carl Schmitt” a talk by Miguel Vatter DESCRIPTION: Professor Miguel Vatter’s lecture examines the confrontation b etween Carl Schmitt’s conception of law as nomos (concrete order) and the a lternative political-theological horizon that emerges from Leo Strauss’s en gagement with Jewish thought. The talk discusses Schmitt’s critique of his own decisionist concept of sovereignty and his recovery in the 1930s of a P latonic-Aristotelian idea of law […] X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Professor Miguel Vatter’s lecture examines the confrontation between Carl Schmitt’s conception of law as nomos (concr ete order) and the alternative political-theological horizon that emerges f rom Leo Strauss’s engagement with Jewish thought. The talk discusses Schmit t’s critique of his own decisionist concept of sovereignty and his recovery in the 1930s of a Platonic-Aristotelian idea of law as nomos. In the same years\, Strauss wrote that “the idea of [divine] law [nomos] is what unifie s Jews and Greeks: the idea of the concrete\, binding order of life.” Build ing on themes developed in Living Law: Jewish Political Theology from Herma nn Cohen to Hannah Arendt\, the lecture compares their politico-theologica l conceptions of concrete order – what they may have in common and where th ey diverge and indeed oppose each other. By tracing Strauss’s encounter wit h Schmitt’s jurisprudence\, the lecture shows how a non-sovereign understan ding of law reframes contemporary debates on constitutional order\, emergen cy powers\, and the relation between theology and politics.
Professor Miguel Vatter is Professor of Politics at the Alfred Deakin Institute for C itizenship and Globalisation\, Deakin University\, and is currently a Fello w at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He is the author of sev eral books\, including Living Law: Jewish Political Theology from Hermann C ohen to Hannah Arendt (2021).

LOCATION:WCC\; 3011 Room GEO:0;0 ORGANIZER;CN="API User":MAILTO:api@law.harvard.edu URL;VALUE=URI:https://hls.harvard.edu/events/law-sovereignty-and-political- theology-jewish-thought-in-conversation-with-carl-schmitt-a-talk-by-miguel- vatter/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 DTSTART:20251102T060000 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR