The “Enemization” of Criminal Law?

Dominique Linhardt (1) , Cédric Moreau de Bellaing (1)

1 LIER-FYT - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire d’Etudes sur les Réflexivités-Fonds Yan Thomas

The fight against terrorism has undergone major changes over the past thirty years. These changes have often been interpreted as a manifestation of “exceptionalism,” a trend that should be criticized for undermining the rule of law. We agree with this diagnosis but want to take a further step by acknowledging that this critical relationship to developments in counterterrorism is an integral part of the social processes to be studied. To this end, our approach places knowledge production at the heart of the scientific study of the fight against terrorism. We aim to understand how the so-called enemy criminal law—a legal dogmatic undertaking that has been used in various settings to reflect on the issue of counterterrorism—has gradually evolved from an objectivist analysis to a critical resource, without its axiomatics having fundamentally changed. With the help of what, in France, is called the “sociologie des épreuves,” we show that this transformation has been achieved through the confrontation of the doctrine with different sociopolitical contexts. We aim to document and help explain this unique trajectory from a sociology of knowledge perspective.

Mots clés: sociology of knowledge.; terrorism; enemy criminal law; legal doctrine; rule of law

Domaines: Droit; Sociologie; Science politique

Dominique Linhardt, Cédric Moreau de Bellaing. The “Enemization” of Criminal Law?: An Inquiry into the Sociology of a Legal Doctrine and its Political and Moral Underpinnings. International Political Sociology, 2019, 13 (4), pp.447-463. ⟨10.1093/ips/olz019⟩. ⟨hal-02280462⟩