Constitutional Failure: Carl Schmitt in Weimar. By Ellen Kennedy. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004. 272p. $79.95 cloth, $22.95 paper.

Carl Schmitt's 1933 involvement with national socialism constitutes a frequent interpretative entry point into his work. From there, his pre-Weimar as well as his post–World War II writings become logically implicated with his infamous role as the Third Reich's “Crown Jurist.” It is the merit of Ellen Kennedy to break away from this dominant, often redundant, trend to offer an original reading of Schmitt's constitutional and political theory. Instead of debating whether his endorsement of Nazism was a matter of principle, Kennedy boldly shifts direction to address broader, more interesting theoretical issues prompted by his writings. Her main goal is to address the relevance of Schmitt's Weimar-era work for contemporary political and constitutional problems.