The distinctive mark of the authoritarian rulers rising to power in western democracies in recent years is their capacity to say the unsayable, to break the unwritten rules of political discourse. What should have traditionally spelled doom for these political figures seems instead to be the very source of their power. This striking feature underlies the amazement and frustration of political theorists and commentators trying to come to terms with political figures like Donald Trump. What seems to capture the fascination of spectators, abhorred or admiring, is that such leaders, in their transgressions, make palpable the tacit dimension of social life.

This contemporary phenomenon thus draws our attention towards the abyss separating the law as understood by jurists, and the law as understood by philosophers of religion and morality on the one hand, and sociologists, cultural theorists and political philosophers on the other. From both sides of the abyss one finds reference to the unwritten law – whether understood as implicit social consent, as a universal natural law or as divine commandment – as the necessary background and foundation of the written, explicit law.  Historically, these and other referents have been gathered under the heading of ‘unwritten law’, as what transcends and supplements the written law. On the one hand, this unwritten support of the law, has been viewed as the implicit normative foundation of the law, a source for the interpretation and critique of the existing order. On the other hand, approaches emphasizing the mysterious impenetrability and secretiveness often associated with the unwritten, tend to view it as the shadowy dark side of the social order, the obscene dimension to be kept out of sight.

In the seminar we will get acquainted with diverse appearances and connotation of the unwritten law in the philosophy of law, moral philosophy, psychoanalysis and critical theory. We will examine the link and the gap between the sovereign law and other, non-sovereign systems of law such as custom, international law, the law of nature and divine commandment. We will read texts in political and moral philosophy (Kant, Hegel, Benjamin), psychoanalysis (Freud, Lacan) and literature (Kafka, Sophocles).