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<p>How to depose an absolute ruler and constitute law anew? This question is about lawmaking in the face of the apocalyptic. I suggest a framework of analysis that puts the oath at its centre and understands it as a technique by which the authors of a coup leave a violent, non-constituted space and vouchsafe themselves personally to a new order. A few weeks in advance of the 20 July 1944 attempt at Hitler’s life, Berthold and Claus von Stauffenberg formulated an oath, addressed to the innermost circle of conspirators – and the brothers themselves. I argue that the <i>poiesis</i> of an oath of this kind is the very paradigm of <i>pouvoir constituant</i>. As suggested by Giorgio Agamben, the oath constitutes law and language in one move, committing the speaker to the emergence of a future truth. The Stauffenbergs were poets; their oath should be understood as apocalyptic lawmaking. I set out a typological history of political oaths and demonstrate its relevance by drawing on the U.S. coup attempt of 6 January 2021. On inauguration day 2025, the 47<sup>th</sup> U.S. President used the oath of office to inscribe the stolen election claim into the semantic content of the U.S. Constitution.</p>

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Killing Hitler Word by Word: The Oath as Apocalyptic Lawmaking

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年4月24日

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  • Gregor Noll

摘要

How to depose an absolute ruler and constitute law anew? This question is about lawmaking in the face of the apocalyptic. I suggest a framework of analysis that puts the oath at its centre and understands it as a technique by which the authors of a coup leave a violent, non-constituted space and vouchsafe themselves personally to a new order. A few weeks in advance of the 20 July 1944 attempt at Hitler’s life, Berthold and Claus von Stauffenberg formulated an oath, addressed to the innermost circle of conspirators – and the brothers themselves. I argue that the poiesis of an oath of this kind is the very paradigm of pouvoir constituant. As suggested by Giorgio Agamben, the oath constitutes law and language in one move, committing the speaker to the emergence of a future truth. The Stauffenbergs were poets; their oath should be understood as apocalyptic lawmaking. I set out a typological history of political oaths and demonstrate its relevance by drawing on the U.S. coup attempt of 6 January 2021. On inauguration day 2025, the 47th U.S. President used the oath of office to inscribe the stolen election claim into the semantic content of the U.S. Constitution.