Po mnogočemu upitne epidemiološke mjere s kojima su vlasti tijekom pandemije COVID-19 ograničile javni i privatni život, osporile su mnoge predodžbe o nepovredivosti prava i sloboda građana, kao i o poslušnosti autoritetu države. Riječ je o problemu nesumjerljivosti slobode i zakona kroz dilemu između osobnih prava i zahtjeva općeg dobra. Stoga ovaj članak ispituje kako izvanredna situacija, poput pandemije, utječe na percepciju vjerodostojnosti države. Pritom se oslanja na neke ključne elemente iz političke teologije Carla Schmitta, kao što su »iznimka«, »sociologija juridičkih pojmova«, »narav suvereniteta«, formalni kriterij političkog kao specifičnog načina mišljenja i djelovanja te »stasiološka« narav onog političkog. In many ways, questionable epidemiological measures by which the authorities restricted civic and private life during the COVID-19 pandemic have challenged many implied notions of the inviolability of citizens’ rights and freedoms, as well as obedience to state authority. It is a problem of the incommensurability between freedom and law seen through the conflict between personal rights and the demands of the common good. This article examines how a state of emergency, such as a pandemic, affects the perception of the legitimacy of the State. In this, it relies on some key concepts from Carl Schmitt’s political theology, such as the “exception”, “the sociology of legal concepts”, the “nature of sovereignty”, the formal criterion of the political as a specific way of thinking, and acting and “stasiological” nature of the political.