Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Evil and World Order: Towards an Agonistic Global Constitutionalism

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Evil as a Crime Against Humanity

Part of the book series: International Political Theory ((IPoT))

  • 250 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter broadens the focus of the book by addressing the question of how to justify the establishment of an overarching world order in a world that not only is but, crucially, ought to be inherently pluralistic. The answer to this question, I suggest, lies in the development of an ‘agonistic global constitutionalism’. In a first step, I build a conceptual framework for the chapter by introducing the three elements of an agonistic global constitutionalism. The second section turns to a more direct discussion of Jürgen Habermas’ vision of a constitution for world society, James Tully’s account of constitutional agonism and Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic pluralism. This, in turn, paves the way for the third and central section in which I develop an ‘agonistic global constitutionalism’ that incorporates some ideas of Habermas, Tully and Mouffe, but is ultimately most strongly influenced by Arendt’s political thought.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Ackerman, B. (1981). Social Justice in the Liberal State. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexander, L. (Ed.). (1998). Constitutionalism: Philosophical Foundations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allott, P. (2002). The Health of Nations: Society and Law Beyond the State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, G. (2017). Critical Theory. In A. Lang & A. Wiener (Eds.), Handbook on Global Constitutionalism (pp. 140–152). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, H. (1970). On Violence. New York, NY: Harcourt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, H. (1998). The Human Condition. With an introduction by Margaret Canovan (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, H. (2005). The Promise of Politics. Edited and with an introduction by Jerome Kohn. New York, NY: Schocken Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, H. (2006). Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought. New York: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, H. (2016). On Revolution (Faber Modern Classics ed.). London: Faber & Faber.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barry, B. (1996). Justice as Impartiality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaulac, S. (2004). The Power of Language in the Making of International Law: The Word Sovereignty in Bodin and Vattel and the Myth of Westphalia. Leiden, The Netherlands and Boston, MA: Brill.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bellamy, R. (2007). Political Constitutionalism: A Republican Defence of the Constitutionality of Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bingham, T. (2011). The Rule of Law. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birdsall, A., & Lang, A. (2017). The International Criminal Court and Global Constitutionalism. In A. Lang & A. Wiener (Eds.), Handbook on Global Constitutionalism (pp. 383–394). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Brands, H., & Edel, C. (2019). The Lessons of Tragedy: Statecraft and World Order. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Breen, K. (2009). Agonism, Antagonism and the Necessity of Care. In A. Schaap (Ed.), Law and Agonistic Politics (pp. 133–146). Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, C. (2002). Sovereignty, Rights and Justice: International Political Theory Today. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bull, H. (2002). The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics (3rd ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buzan, B. (2010). From International to World Society? English School Theory and the Social Structure of Globalisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Canovan, M. (2005). The People. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caraus, T. (2016). Towards an Agonistic Cosmopolitanism: Exploring the Cosmopolitan Potential of Chantal Mouffe’s Agonism. Critical Horizons, 17(1), 94–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. L. (2011). Constitutionalism Beyond the State: Myth or Necessity? (A Pluralist Approach). Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development, 2(1), 127–158.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. L. (2012). Globalization and Sovereignty: Rethinking Legality, Legitimacy, and Constitutionalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, W. (1991). Identity/Difference: Democratic Negotiations of Political Paradox. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Critchley, S. (2019). Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us. New York, NY: Pantheon.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Entreves, M. P., & Benhabib, S. (Eds.). (1996). Habermas and the Unfinished Project of Modernity: Critical Essays on the Philosophical Discourse of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobner, P., & Loughlin, M. (Eds.). (2012). The Twilight of Constitutionalism? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunoff, J. L., & Trachtman, J. P. (2009). Ruling the World? Constitutionalism, International Law, and Global Governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dworkin, R. (1986). Law’s Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dworkin, R. (2013). Taking Rights Seriously (Reprint ed.). London: Bloomsbury Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edyvane, D. (2008). Justice as Conflict: The Question of Stuart Hampshire. Contemporary Political Theory, 7(3), 317–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erskine, T., & Lebow, N. (Eds.). (2012). Tragedy and International Relations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Everson, M. (2004). Accountability and Law in Europe: Towards a New Public Legal Order? The Modern Law Review, 67(1), 124–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fossen, T. (2008). Agonistic Critiques of Liberalism: Perfection and Emancipation. Contemporary Political Theory, 7(4), 376–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frazer, E., & Hutchings, K. (2019). Can Political Violence Ever Be Justified? Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grimm, D. (2016). Constitutionalism: Past, Present, and Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (2001). Constitutional Democracy: A Paradoxical Union of Contradictory Principles? Political Theory, 29(6), 766–781.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (2006). The Divided West. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (2008a). Between Naturalism and Religion: Philosophical Essays. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (2008b). The Constitutionalization of International Law and the Legitimation Problems of a Constitution for World Society. Constellations, 15(4), 444–455.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (2013). A Political Constitution for the Pluralist World Society? Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 40, 226–238.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, A., Madison, J., & Jay, J. (2009). The Federalist Papers. Edited by and with an Introduction by Michael Genovese. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hampshire, S. (2001). Justice Is Conflict. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardin, R. (2003). Liberalism, Constitutionalism, and Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hesiod. (2006). Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia. Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hohfeld, C. (1919). Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Legal Reasoning: And Other Legal Essays. Edited by Walter Wheeler Cook. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Honig, B. (2000). Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Honig, B. (2009). Emergency Politics: Paradox, Law, Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Honig, B., & Stears, M. (2011). The New Realism: From Modus Vivendi to Justice. In J. Floyd & M. Stears (Eds.), Political Philosophy Versus History? Contextualism and Real Politics in Contemporary Political Thought (pp. 177–205). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Honneth, A., McCarthy, T., Offe, C., & Wellmer, A. (Eds.). (1992). Cultural-Political Interventions in the Unfinished Project of Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurrell, A. (2007). On Global Order: Power, Values, and the Constitution of International Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ignatieff, M. (2003). Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, R. (2003). The Global Covenant: Human Conduct in a World of States. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jonas, H. (1976). Responsibility Today: The Ethics of an Endangered Future. Social Research, 43(1), 77–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalyvas, A. (2006). The Basic Norm and Democracy in Hans Kelsen’s Legal and Political Theory. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 32(5), 573–599.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kateb, G. (2010). Existential Values in Arendt’s Treatment of Evil and Morality. In S. Benhabib (Ed.), Politics in Dark Times: Encounters with Hannah Arendt (pp. 342–374). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kay, R. (1998). American Constitutionalism. In L. Alexander (Ed.), Constitutionalism: Philosophical Foundations (pp. 16–63). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelsen, H. (1945). General Theory of Law and State. Translated by Anders Wedberg. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelsen, H. (1959). On the Basic Norm. California Law Review, 47(1), 107–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelsen, H. (1991). General Theory of Norms. Translated by Michael Hartney. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelsen, H. (2009). Pure Theory of Law. Translated by Max Knight (Lawbook Exchange ed.). Clark, NJ: The Lawbook Exchange.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khan, G. (2013). Critical Republicanism: Jürgen Habermas and Chantal Mouffe. Contemporary Political Theory, 12(4), 318–337.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knops, A. (2007). Debate: Agonism as Deliberation: On Mouffe’s Theory of Democracy. Journal of Political Philosophy, 15(1), 115–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (2014). Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (2nd ed.). London: Verso Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lang, A. (2017). Global Constituent Powers: Human Rights and Protests. In A. Hehir & R. W. Murray (Eds.), Protecting Human Rights in the 21st Century (pp. 19–33). Abingdon and New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lang, A., & Wiener, A. (Eds.). (2017). Handbook on Global Constitutionalism. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lebow, R. (2003). The Tragic Vision of Politics: Ethics, Interests and Orders. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Loughlin, M. (Ed.). (2008). The Paradox of Constitutionalism: Constituent Power and Constitutional Form. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marchart, O. (2007). Post-foundational Political Thought: Political Difference in Nancy, Lefort, Badiou and Laclau. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McIlwain, C. H. (1940). Constitutionalism: Ancient and Modern. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montesquieu. (1989). The Spirit of the Laws. Edited by Anne Cohler, Basia Miller, and Harold Stone. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mouffe, C. (2000). The Democratic Paradox. London: Verso Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mouffe, C. (2005). On the Political. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mouffe, C. (2006a). The Return of the Political. London: Verso Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mouffe, C. (2006b). Agonistic Democracy and Radical Politics. Pavilion Journal. Retrieved from: http://pavilionmagazine.org/chantal-mouffe-agonistic-democracy-and-radical-politics. Accessed 6 May 2020.

  • Mouffe, C. (2014). Democracy, Human Rights and Cosmopolitanism: An Agonistic Approach. In C. Douzinas & C. Gearty (Eds.), The Meanings of Rights: The Philosophy and Social Theory of Human Rights (pp. 181–192). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Moyn, S. (2014). Plural Cosmopolitanisms and the Origins of Human Rights. In C. Douzinas & C. Gearty (Eds.), The Meanings of Rights: The Philosophy and Social Theory of Human Rights (pp. 193–211). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Niessen, P. (2017). Constituent Power in Global Constitutionalism. In A. Lang & A. Wiener (Eds.), Handbook on Global Constitutionalism (pp. 222–233). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • openDemocracy. (2013). The Optimistic Agonist: An Interview with Bonnie Honig. Retrieved from: http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/nick-pearce-bonnie-honig/optimistic-agonist-interview-with-bonnie-honig. Accessed 13 April 2020.

  • Osiander, A. (2001). Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Westphalian Myth. International Organization, 55(2), 251–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pagden, A. (2003). Human Rights, Natural Rights, and Europe’s Imperial Legacy. Political Theory, 31(2), 171–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peters, A. (2011). Membership in the Global Constitutional Community. In J. Klabbers, A. Peters, & G. Ulfstein (Eds.), The Constitutionalization of International Law (pp. 153–262). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (1999). A Theory of Justice (Rev. ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (2005). Political Liberalism (Expanded ed.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenfeld, M. (1994). Modern Constitutionalism as Interplay Between Identity and Diversity. In M. Rosenfeld (Ed.), Constitutionalism, Identity, Difference, and Legitimacy: Theoretical Perspectives (pp. 3–35). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenfeld, M. (2014). Is Global Constitutionalism Meaningful or Desirable? European Journal of International Law, 25(1), 177–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Royer, C. (2020). Evil as an Expression of and a Threat to Human Plurality: Hannah Arendt’s Agonistic Realism. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory. Online first.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sajo, A. (1999). Limiting Government: Introduction to Constitutionalism. Budapest and New York, NY: Central European University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaap, A. (2007). Political Theory and the Agony of Politics. Political Studies Review, 5(1), 56–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaap, A. (2009). Introduction. In A. Schaap (Ed.), Law and Agonistic Politics (pp. 1–13). Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwöbel, C. E. J. (2010). Situating the Debate on Global Constitutionalism. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 8(3), 611–635.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sieyes, E. (1963). What Is the Third Estate? Edited by Samuel Finer, translated by Maurice Blondel. London: Pall Mall Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slaughter, A. M., & Burke-White, W. (2002.). An International Constitutional Moment. Harvard International Law Journal, 43(1), 1–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tacheva, B., & Wallace Brown, G. (2015). Global Constitutionalism and the Responsibility to Protect. Global Constitutionalism, 4(3), 428–467.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tambakaki, P. (2009). Cosmopolitanism or Agonism? Alternative Visions of World Order. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 12(1), 101–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teschke, B. (2009). The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics, and the Making of Modern International Relations (2nd ed.). London: Verso Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tully, J. (1995). Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tully, J. (2002). The Unfreedom of the Moderns in Comparison to Their Ideals of Constitutional Democracy. The Modern Law Review, 65(2), 204–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tully, J. (2008a). Public Philosophy in a New Key: Democracy and Civic Freedom (Vol. 1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tully, J. (2008b). Public Philosophy in a New Key: Imperialism and Civic Freedom (Vol. 2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tully, J., Dunoff, J. L., Lang, A. F., Kumm, M., & Wiener, A. (2016). Introducing Global Integral Constitutionalism. Global Constitutionalism, 5(1), 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Volk, C. (2015). Arendtian Constitutionalism: Law, Politics and the Order of Freedom. Oxford: Hart Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waldron, J. (2016). Political Political Theory: Essays on Institution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wall, I. R. (2012). Human Rights and Constituent Power: Without Model or Warranty. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiler, J. (1999). The Constitution of Europe: ‘Do the New Clothes Have an Emperor’? And Other Essays on European Integration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Welsh, J. (2013). Norm Contestation and the Responsibility to Protect. Global Responsibility to Protect, 5(4), 365–396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wenman, M. (2013). Agonistic Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wiener, A. (2008). The Invisible Constitution of Politics: Contested Norms and International Encounters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wiener, A. (2012). Global Constitutionalism: International Relations. Retrieved from: http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199743292/obo-9780199743292-0092.xml. Accessed 18 May 2019.

  • Wiener, A. (2014). A Theory of Contestation. New York, NY: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wiener, A., Lang, A., Tully, J., Maduro, M. P., & Kumm, M. (2012). Global Constitutionalism: Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law. Global Constitutionalism, 1(1), 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wingenbach, E. (2011). Institutionalizing Agonistic Democracy: Post-foundationalism and Political Liberalism. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. (2015). Ethics, Diversity, and World Politics: Saving Pluralism from Itself? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Christof Royer

Authors
  1. Christof Royer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christof Royer .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Royer, C. (2021). Evil and World Order: Towards an Agonistic Global Constitutionalism. In: Evil as a Crime Against Humanity. International Political Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53817-0_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation