The Juridification of the World. Law, Recognition, and the Universal State in Alexandre Kojève

Abstract

This article examines Alexandre Kojève’s reflections on law, authority,
and the universal and homogeneous State, focusing on his Outline of a Phenomenology of Rightt (1943) and his subsequent role as a statesman en-gaged in Europe’s postwar reconstruction. It shows how Kojève’s Hegelian reading of recognition leads to a juridical conception of justice grounded in social relations and mediated by the “third,” contrasting with Carl Schmitt’s primacy of enmity. Kojève interprets the evolution of right as a historical process culminating in a pacified order where law prevails over political de-cision, projecting the universal and homogeneous State as both theoretical utopia and practical horizon. By analyzing Kojève’s philosophical writings, political engagements, and dialogues with Strauss and Schmitt, the article highlights the tensions between utopia and realism, sovereignty and depo-liticization, history and post-history, situating Kojève as a thinker-official who sought to reimagine Europe as a legal and political unity.