Hannah Arendt: a lei como condição para a cidadania.

Abstract

This work adopts the idea that, according to Hannah Arendt, the law is set as a condition for her citizenship conception. The development of this premise requires disclosing the concept of law in connection with the conception of citizenship that, in Hannah Arendt, is set under two perspectives, namely one of a cosmopolitan imprint and another of a stricter kind, of membership and active participation citizens in their community. The concept of law is explained by the author from classical antiquity through the fundamental experiences of the West, namely the polis and the res publica. Arendt makes use of nomos in its meaning of boundary and wall to provide stability to human affairs. She appropriates the notion of lex romana to mean the foundation and the alliance that constitute abody politic. In both senses, the author emphasizes that the law acts as a restraint, a frontier to be respected and thus make it possible for individuals to share a common life. Beyond the boundaries of law, stability and the political space they provide, there is only the desert and insecurity. In order to develop this study, it took a digression into the arendtian corpus, which in the specific case of citizenship begins with her criticism of human rights, debates international protection and the Kantian right of hospitality and, concerning active citizenship, is linked to Arendt‟s republican affiliationand the idea of active participation.