New Nomos of the Earth? Perspectives of the Order in the Age of Chaos

Abstract

The article “The New Nomos of the Earth? Perspectives of the Order in the age of chaos” by Jan Okoński presents the concept of Nomos and its interpretations against the background of a changing global order. The author presented an analysis of the Nomos as a symbol of justice (similar to such ideas as: ius, maat, and tao) and Carl Schmitt’s analysis of this term, which is important from the point of view of the philosophy of law. Nomos is word derived from ancient Greek, a concept that somehow unites the plane of factuality and the plane of validity of law. In the word Nomos, there is contained, a strange, paradoxical union of violence and justice. The Italian philosopher and researcher of the thought of C. Schmitt, Giorgio Agamben, has pointed out that Hobbes’s sovereign is the only one that remains in a state of nature, retaining his “ius contra omnes”, we may say, perhaps along similar lines to the states in the UN Security Council. These considerations are set against the background of the former China-centred system of international relations in Asia and the current attempts to transform the global order. Nomos is proving to be an ever-present concept that, although not as popular as other ideas from ancient Greece, casts clear light on issues of the validity of law in general and helps to make the evolution of the global order easier to understand. Through the prism of the concept of Nomos, it can be seen that the old world order, crystallised by the Europeans, can be marginalised by the change of the global power relations. This is not a new process, for it has already occurred in history. It is clear from the content of the article that law has appeared, since ancient times, to be paradoxically linked to violence and the possibility of initiating it.