ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Schmitt's elaboration of the notion of great spaces within the context of an analysis of the so-called nomos of the earth. Nomos, as Schmitt points out, is usually translated by jurists and historians as law, custom or tradition. Nomos is thus to be understood as the foundational order of the earth as a whole, that is, of the international legal order. According to Schmitt, the first nomos lasted from Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages and land dominates here. The second nomos, dating from around the sixteenth century, came about due to a change in the elements, of which England was in a certain sense the agent. The new nomos, Schmitt predicted, could ultimately be characterised by the victory of one power, that is, either the United States or the Soviet Union, leading to world unity. The chapter shows that a certain law lies at the foundation of international law.
