A watchtower at the famous Guantanamo Bay prison camp. Photograph Source: Gino Reyes – Public Domain

On January 6, the Pentagon announced that it had “resettled” 11 Yemeni men to Oman after detaining them over two decades without charge at the US naval facility of Guantánamo Bay. Notice of this repatriation was given back on September 15, 2023 to Congress by Secretary of Defense Austin. Their removal from a facility made notorious in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States brings the number of those still detained at Guantánamo to 15.

They are reminders about what the German jurist and Nazi enthusiast Carl Schmitt called a state of exception, a rather sinister way of saying that states, and leaders, can behave abominably if their position enables them to do so. The exercise of such a power is intended for the broader public good, a concept suitably rubbery to justify any assortment of crimes. The exception to observing laws, in other words, lies in the very nature of sovereignty itself. If you are not a sovereign, follow; if you are one, dictate and, if........

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