Political Theology and the United Nations. With regard to Per una Costituzione della Terra. L’umanità al bivio, by Luigi Ferrajoli

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the diagnosis of the global crisis of the Planet that Luigi Ferrajoli carries out in his book Per una Costituzione della Terra and, especially, to underline the solutions he proposes. His commitment to global constitutionalism requires a reflection on international politics and the role of the United Nations, specifically the Security Council, since it is there that the theological-political problem of the institution is staged, putting the political interests of the powers before the fundamental rights of the Charter. This primacy of politics over law that Ferrajoli criticizes, allows us to contrast his theses with those of one of the best-known advocates of decisionism and political theology, Carl Schmitt. The comparison between these two authors’ visions is crucial to comprehend the theoretical consequences of understanding constitutionalism from the standpoint of identity and agonism, as in the case of Schmitt, or from the standpoint of pluralism and rights, as proposed by Ferrajoli, who seeks to overcome skepticism and disaffection towards the United Nations by stressing that only by establishing an adequate system of guarantees can the stagnation of the organization be overcome and it will be possible to provide a solution to many of the geopolitical problems of the present.