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Article dans une revue Kobe University Law Review Année : 2015

States, Law & Borders : A Theoretical Perspective (Tri-National University Meeting :"States and Borders")

Résumé

In jean Renoir's masterpiece La Grande Illusion, two French officers, Maréchal (Jean Gabin) and Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), prisoners in a German fortress during World War 1, escape and cross Germany to join Switzerland. During the final scene, in a landscape of snowy mountains, Dalio, exhausted, tells Maréchal that they have reached Switzerland. Maréchal appears doubtful as he hasn't noticed any difference nor frontiers, so Rosenthal says: "Frontiers, they do not exist. Frontiers are an invention of men. Nature doesn't give a hoot" Later when they are spotted by a German patrol and a German soldier is about to shoot them, the German officer says: "Leave them, they are free now". Any remark about borders from a theoretical perspective should start with the following: Frontiers as States are not natural; they are the result of human beings' political constructions, wills and choices. And it is for this very reason that their physical and political significance can change throughout time, ideology and space. Furthermore, it seems obvious that because both Frontiers and States are constructed together, it is impossible to imagine the legal concept of Borders without connecting them with the State, or vice versa. In other words, any shift in our concept of States leads us to think differently about borders, and any shift in our concept of Borders leads us to think differently about the State. Of course, it is possible to think a system of power without any reference to space and to, prima facie, borders. It is even possible that such a thought seems to be received by tacts, and marginally accepted by some kinds of positive laws.

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Droit
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Dates et versions

halshs-03699544, version 1 (20-06-2022)

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Éric Millard. States, Law & Borders : A Theoretical Perspective (Tri-National University Meeting :"States and Borders"). Kobe University Law Review, 2015, 49, pp.59-68. ⟨10.24546/E0040954⟩. ⟨halshs-03699544⟩
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