emergency law (lec 3)

Question 1

what was Agamben’s principle argument?

Answer 1

-The state of emergency has never been temporary

-we have always been in state of emergency, and all states slowly move to totalitarianism, irrespective of what we do

Question 2

what was hobbes’ theory? what is it the basis for?

Answer 2

-state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short

-basis of absolute monarchy

Question 3

what was locke’s theory? what was it the basis for?

Answer 3

-people have inalienable rights, government has social contract to protect those rights

-basis of democratic systems

Question 4

what was Agamben’s argument with respect to the state of “the ban”

Answer 4

-law is in force but has no meaning
or
-law is in force but without significance

Question 5

what does sovereign have the power to decide?

Answer 5

who is and is not part of the nation

Question 5

sovereign is the only power that can do what?

Answer 5

create law and exempt itself from law

Question 6

what is the concept of homo sacer?

Answer 6

sovereign has the power to exlude people from law

means “the sacred man”- one who can be killed but not sacrificed

Question 7

what does homo sacer mean? difference b/w killed and sacrificed?

Answer 7

roman times: sacrified=holy

-homo sacer is opposite
-can be killed but NOT sacrificed
-making them unclean or in exile

Question 8

with resepct to homo sacer, what can law be designed for?

Answer 8

sovereign has power to create homo sacer

can be designed to abandon these people

Question 9

explain “the meaning of the law only applies in no longer applying”

Answer 9

homo sacer is the subject

simultaneously turned over to the law and excluded from it

Question 10

the holocaust illustrates what principle brought forth by Agamben? explain how it demonstates this

Answer 10

only the sovereign can kill and not be guilty of homocide

Laws created to remove Jews from the law, to turn them into non-beings

Question 11

what is the concept of “the ban”

Answer 11

rooted in the ability of the power of sovereign to exist is the power of sovereign to exclude

Question 12

The state of exception/emergency is in place when?

Answer 12

the laws of the land don’t apply to the sovereign/government

Question 13

why is the state of emergency the norm?

Answer 13

since sovereign power was created, it has always had the power to:

-will itself into existance
-create law
-exclude itself from it
-exclude others

Question 14

according to Agamben, all states move towards totalitarianism. How does this happen?

Answer 14

since ww1, countries started to include state of emergency in their legislative laws

the more states relied on these powers, the more it became a way of governing

Question 15

what was Canada’s first statute that spelled out it’s emergency power authority?

Answer 15

1914, War Measures Act

Question 16

what did P.C 2384 of the War Measures Act allow the government to do?

Answer 16

arrest anyone that belonged to an “unlawful organization”

Question 17

what was an “unlawful organization” defined as? what was an oversight with respect to this?

Answer 17

any group that advocated that the government, economic system or industry be changed by force

force was left undefined

Question 18

after ww1, the emergency powers of War Measures Act were no longer in place, what did the government want to do with P.C 2384 and why?

Answer 18

government wanted to keep P.C 2384 because increase in labor radicalism as well as communist parties in canada.

government feared canada would end up like russia

Question 19

how did Canada include P.C 2384 in its laws?

Answer 19

folded into section 98 of criminal code, now permanent

Question 20

what was the issue with section 98 of the criminal code?

Answer 20

many terms left undefined
-force
-economic change
-unlawful organizations
-teaching/advocating

people were afraid to for example advocate for better labor conditions or that unions were unlawful

Question 21

people turned on section 98, and was later reappealed but not completely, how was it still present?

Answer 21

crucial parts were put into other sections of the criminal code

Question 22

what is the FLQ crisis?

Answer 22

francophones felt oppresed by anglophones and wanted to seperate Qubec from Canada

they belived violence was the only answer

Question 23

how was the FLQ crisis controlled?

Answer 23

P.C 2384

Question 24

what does section 98 define today?

Answer 24

threats to the security of canada

Question 25

what relies on defining the threats of security today?

Answer 25

current day emergency act