In this proposal I would like to engage with the current pandemic situation making bridges between the idea of catastrophe and its meaning for law. As I suggest understanding the term, catastrophes are a sudden breakdown from the normal status of things. No matter the origin of the event, human or non-human related, consequences are always a problem of human responsibility. From this perspective, catastrophes are epiphanic events as they reveal how our laws work, what values they protect, the shortcomings of any order of regulation and how they are successful in protecting us from vulnerability in the global arena of risks. But all catastrophes, and pandemics are no exceptions here, contrary to an old belief, are not “big levelers” but extraordinary magnifiers of injustice. In a globally interconnected world how law as a tool of immunization can protect some without injuring others? How it is possible to limit the infectious body without expulsing it into a void of rights denying ? How much of this discussion should be placed in dialogue with the climate change transformation and the legal meaning of the Anthropocene? Crisis and catastrophes in the context of the environmental degradation also show and confirm the emergence of transformation of subjectivities, increasingly defined by their capacity to be resilient and constantly capable of managing risk in all areas of social life from job insecurity to health privatization. The subject of the disaster is an ec-static one suspended between the normality lost and the disorder to overcome. At this point emerges the problem of the “right to survive” as a distinctive feature of political and legal subjectivites in turbulent time. Survival assume a distinctive meaning in understanding the complex relationship between law, politics and catastrophe. While many authors have oriented towards an understanding of this issue through the lens of bio-politics , the actual intensification of the crisis, at the junction of pandemic order related and ecological crisis call for a re-thinking of such a relationship beyond this approach and that take into further consideration challenges arousing from climate change scenario.
Law, catastrophe and the transformations of the right to survive / NITRATO IZZO, Valerio. - (2021). (Intervento presentato al convegno CONDITION CRITICAL Disruption, disaster and the challenges to law tenutosi a Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra; Italian National Research Council Bologna; Social Research Policy and Planning Australia nel 28 settembre 2021).
Law, catastrophe and the transformations of the right to survive
Valerio Nitrato Izzo
2021
Abstract
In this proposal I would like to engage with the current pandemic situation making bridges between the idea of catastrophe and its meaning for law. As I suggest understanding the term, catastrophes are a sudden breakdown from the normal status of things. No matter the origin of the event, human or non-human related, consequences are always a problem of human responsibility. From this perspective, catastrophes are epiphanic events as they reveal how our laws work, what values they protect, the shortcomings of any order of regulation and how they are successful in protecting us from vulnerability in the global arena of risks. But all catastrophes, and pandemics are no exceptions here, contrary to an old belief, are not “big levelers” but extraordinary magnifiers of injustice. In a globally interconnected world how law as a tool of immunization can protect some without injuring others? How it is possible to limit the infectious body without expulsing it into a void of rights denying ? How much of this discussion should be placed in dialogue with the climate change transformation and the legal meaning of the Anthropocene? Crisis and catastrophes in the context of the environmental degradation also show and confirm the emergence of transformation of subjectivities, increasingly defined by their capacity to be resilient and constantly capable of managing risk in all areas of social life from job insecurity to health privatization. The subject of the disaster is an ec-static one suspended between the normality lost and the disorder to overcome. At this point emerges the problem of the “right to survive” as a distinctive feature of political and legal subjectivites in turbulent time. Survival assume a distinctive meaning in understanding the complex relationship between law, politics and catastrophe. While many authors have oriented towards an understanding of this issue through the lens of bio-politics , the actual intensification of the crisis, at the junction of pandemic order related and ecological crisis call for a re-thinking of such a relationship beyond this approach and that take into further consideration challenges arousing from climate change scenario.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
