Science/activism, law/related sciences, state sovereignty/rule of law all coexist in a perfectly edited poem.

Already from the author’s preface one can immediately guess the autobiographical canvas on which he prepared his opinion: his research course intersects with his activities, in the “walls” of the university auditorium (he dedicates the book to his students). The result, however, is not like what we saw after post-colonialism in the field of political science, which the author worked for twenty years in a row in the department of political science and history of the University of Panteillon. And this is because the Christopoulos activist does not seduce the Christopoulos researcher, or vice versa. They coexist distinctly even in the eloquent titles of three chapters, eleven sections and thirty-nine subsections (for example, “The State of the Rules, perhaps unfair, but the rules”). The strangest piece of evidence is, of course, the extensive subsection (“The Quintessence of Politics: Exclusion and Inclusion”), where the author takes a detailed look at the challenge of the immigrant.

In addition to revealing the autobiographical details of the author, the book reveals his wide knowledge even in areas not directly related to his scientific life. In the first chapter, the references to history and linguistics are impressive, in the second to sociology, and in the third to theology. Almost at the same time, the main characters of the sciences, in which the author has been engaged for several decades, literally march out of the total number of four hundred and fifty pages. For example, Hans Kelsen, “the most important European legal theorist of the 20th century”, is mentioned in six different places in the text, as is the patriarch of Greek constitutional law, Aristobulos Manesis.

As for the essence, very little can be said here, because the author remains unshakable in his basic position, as he first stated it in his doctoral dissertation and is eloquently summarized in the following phrase of pain: “the taming of the beast from [κρατικής] sovereignty is a great virtue for law and the state.” He does not renounce state sovereignty or anything else: he recognizes it, and on this recognition, like a real libertarian, he builds his theory of its domestication.

Let’s summarize the author’s dipoles: science/activism, law/related sciences, state sovereignty/rule of law. All this coexists in perfect combination in the heart. Besides, what could be more beautiful than this symbiosis than the centaur Chiron adorning the cover of an intricately crafted book borrowed from the author of The Ruler, Niccolò Machiavelli?

* Mr. Yannis Ktistakis is a Judge of the European Court of Human Rights.