Between Normalcy and Emergency Situations Are Refugee Rights Stuck in a Legal Vacuum in Times of Crisis?

Abstract

According to Carl Schmitt’s theory of the “state of exception”, normalcy represents an ordinary state of affairs, a normal constitutional order controlled  by constitutional norms, which are applied as the “general rule”. Every inferior legal norm presupposes the existence of this normal state of affairs and is also applied as a “general rule” as long as the state of affairs continues to exist, effectively becoming part of it.1 On the contrary, an “emergency” represents a temporary disruption of the ordinary state of affairs, thus an exception to the “general rule”...