necessitas legem non habet*
When the ideals of the law are suspended in order to reach the end of law (the common good) then you find yourself in what Giorgio Agamben calls the State of Exception.
[T]he state of exception separates the norm from its application in order to make its applicaiton possible. It introduces a zone of anomie into the law in order to make the effective regulation of the real possible.
The operative ideology at work in this situation is that no sacrifice is too great in securing our desired end, least of all the temporary suspension of the form of that end itself. The Roman Republic secured for itself a state of exception when, during a time of necessity, the often slow deliberation of the joint consuls — and thus the form of the Republic itself — would be suspended in order to allow a dictator the power to make necessary decisions. For the Roman Republic, this was to be limited to a sixth month period. In the end, however, the state of exception became permanent and the Republic became an Empire.
Rome failed to maintain its ideal with a six month state of exception.
We are in month ten.
* necessity has no law
