The sovereign is both inside and outside the legal order. Because the sovereign has the right to
suspend the validity of the law and is therefore outside the law. The way to understand this paradox
is to understand the exception. According to Schmitt, the exception is what is not included in the
general but whose existence is needed to explain and define the general. Considering the fact that
the sovereign is also in the state of exception, it can be said that the rule of law, which is the general
situation, needs "sovereign exception" in order to exist and ensure its validity.
Exception, that is, an individual situation that is excluded from the general rule, does not mean a
situation that has cut off its relationship with it because it is excluded from the rule. The exception
remains in relation to the rule, as the suspension of the rule. The exception, which defines the
structure of sovereignty, is included not by the exception removing itself from the rule, but by the
legal order's withdrawal from the exception. Inclusion by this exclusion is called relation of exception.
A good example of the nature of exception is found in Roman law as "exceptio".