‘No man is an island’, says the poet, less even a self-determining island. In the long journey that ends with this book I have been generously helped by many. With my dear friends and colleagues from the Nomos Centre we have spent long hours discussing critical legal thought. The exception, the politico-ideological dimension of the law, the legacy of Marxism were our key concerns—especially at the time when the world gradually slipped into the exceptional ‘new normalcy’ of the pandemic. As we were pondering on the rise of new sovereigntisms, dark clouds formed on the horizon of history and the need for well-grounded rejuvenation of leftist thinking felt acutely palpable. I could not overestimate how much these discussions contributed to ideas I present in this book. I am immensely grateful to Cosmin Cercel, Gian Giacomo Fusco, Saygun Gökarıksel, Tormod Otter Johanssen, Rafał Mańko, Alexandra Mercescu and all the other members of the Nomos not only for the experience of thinking together, but also for their unrelenting support.
I owe great thanks to Maria Drakopoulou, Gian Giacomo Fusco and Ntina Tzouvala for their perspicacious comments on the text without which I would certainly make more mistakes than the ones that kind readers will probably find. I could not list all the people generous enough to talk about ideas contained in this book, but I am grateful for everything I managed to rethink with their help.
‘And all that’s best of dark and bright’, writes the poet, all these things that mix in time as it indifferently pushes forward have worked their way through this book, despite the unruffled stability of its topics. How else could I go through this maelstrom if not with your help, my Bright Star, who made it a fortunate ‘night of cloudless climes’?
I am grateful for all the institutional support I received while preparing this book: the scholarships of the French government, the daad and the University of Salzburg. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, Library of the Salzburg University and Peace Palace Library were my refuges for reading and writing. The book was prepared within the framework of the research project ‘The Right of Nations to Self-Determination: A Critical Appraisal of the State of the Art in Times of Anti-Globalist Movements’ (reg. no. 2019/33/b/hs5/02827) financed by the National Science Centre, Poland.