Abstract

The essay analyzes the «constitutional phase» (1808-1823) of Juan Sempere y Guarinos' political thought in order to point out that it cannot be confined either within the con¬servative or the liberal tradition. Rather, the political perspective proposed by Sempere during the events produced by the invasion of Spain by the Napoleonic army allows to regard the Spanish jurist as a precursor of political decisionism, even though his refusal of every traditionalistic foundation of sovereignty distinguishes him by the counterrevo¬lutionary thinkers to which Carl Schmitt referred.