ABSTRACT
The state's relation to law — and, therefore, its institutionality and its relation to society — is also changing. The emerging state departs from a liberal, rights-based judicial order, and its law is increasingly issued by the Executive, giving state power an arbitrary hue. This is seemingly justified by necessity; yet, the lack of purpose in the exercise of power belies this justification: the judicial state of necessity is mobilised with the sole purpose of lifting the condition of necessity — thus making itself redundant. By contrast, our state has no decipherable strategy of how to overcome the necessity, or a clear goal it tries to achieve. Without a purpose or a strategy to achieve it, this is a state of pseudo-necessity. Rather than making itself redundant, it is set to perpetuate itself as such, given that an abundance of imminent “necessities” (security, environmental, economic) can justify its perpetuation. Crucially, the state's departure from liberal legality is effectuated in law and promulgated by institutions that maintain their constitutional form and function. This is not a dictatorial derailment. It is a reconfiguration of the rule of law so that, instead of posing limits to state power, it grants it licence.
