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LCI editions

European Civilization’s “Free Space” and Modern China · 欧洲文明的“自由空间”与现代中国

Liu Xiaofeng

Translated by S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026)

Liu Xiaofeng’s long essay of 2018 on Carl Schmitt’s The Nomos of the Earth: how Europe’s “free space” of conquest made modern international law, and what that order has meant for China, from the Treaty of Tordesillas to the Thirty-Eighth Parallel. With his 41 notes. In Chinese beside a new English translation.

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  • Chinese: 刘小枫，《欧洲文明的“自由空间”与现代中国——读施米特〈大地的法〉札记》, as republished on Sohu, 12 December 2018 (original journal pagination not reconstructed).
  • English: Laurentium Cultural Industries, complete translation with the author’s 41 notes (9 October 2026).

Contents · 11

  1. 1Abstract
  2. 2Introduction
  3. 31. A Difficult Subject to Broach
  4. 42. The Divide Between Ancient and Modern World Orders
  5. 53. What Is “Global Linear Thinking”?
  6. 64. “Amity Lines” and Discriminatory Divisions
  7. 75. The Globalized Order and the Crisis of a New Nomos of the Earth
  8. 86. China’s Modern Transformation and International Law
  9. 97. New China and International Law
  10. 10Epilogue: From the Raya Lines to the Thirty-Eighth Parallel
  11. 11Author’s notes