The Nomos of the Earth

The theory of law as a unit of order (Ordnung) and of localization (Ortung), elaborated by Carl Schmitt, is encapsulated by the Greek word Nomos. In its original meaning, Nomos refers to "full "immediacy" of a legal force not mediated by laws; a constitutive historical event, an act of the legitimacy, which only confers meaning to the legality of mere law." The Nomos is and remains, therefore, the true core of an historic political event of an absolute and concrete nature.
The information revolution, which exploded little more than a decade ago and is currently at the height of its development, calls the very idea of the State into question. Today legal science must lay bare the notion of the State, its principles and fundamental rules, in order to examine its foundations, efficacy and capacity for survival. It is these crucial issues which will occupy science and politics in the coming decades. Ideological conflict that has dominated recent history will be supplanted in the coming decades either by a clash of civilisations or conflict between social classes, major geopolitical areas or even through institutions among emerging local forms of regional geo-economic units and traditional nation-states.