raise
without any arguments is a special use of python syntax. It means get the exception and re-raise it. If this usage it could have been called reraise
.
raise
From The Python Language Reference:
If no expressions are present, raise re-raises the last exception that was active in the current scope.
If raise
is used alone without any argument is strictly used for reraise-ing. If done in the situation that is not at a reraise of another exception, the following error is shown:
RuntimeError: No active exception to reraise