The end of reciprocity : terror, torture, and the law of war / Mark Osiel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Osiel, Mark, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Humanitarian law.

Terrorism--Prevention--Law and legislation.

Terrorism.

Lex talionis.

Reciprocity (Psychology).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 667 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Why should America restrain itself in detaining, interrogating, and targeting terrorists when they show it no similar forbearance? Is it fair to expect one side to fight by more stringent rules than the other, placing itself at disadvantage? Is the disadvantaged side then permitted to use the tactics and strategies of its opponent? If so, then America's most controversial counterterrorism practices are justified as commensurate responses to indiscriminate terror. Yet different ethical standards prove entirely fitting, the author finds, in a conflict between a network of suicidal terrorists seeking mass atrocity at any cost and a constitutional democracy committed to respecting human dignity and the rule of law. The most important reciprocity involves neither uniform application of fair rules nor their enforcement by a simple-minded tit-for-tat. Real reciprocity instead entails contributing to an emergent global contract that encompasses the law of war and from which all peoples may mutually benefit.

Contents:

Reciprocity in the law of war : ambient sightings, ambivalent soundings

Reciprocity in humanitarian law : acceptance and repudiation

Humanitarian vs. human rights law : the coming clash

Is torture uniquely degrading? : the unpersuasive answer of liberal jurisprudence

Fairness in terrorist war (1) : Rawlsian reciprocity

Fairness in terrorist war (2) : Kantian reciprocity

Humanitarian law as corrective justice : do targeted killing and torture 'correct' for terror?

Reciprocity as civilization : the terrorist as savage

The inflationary rhetoric of terrorist threat : humanitarian law as deflationary check

Reciprocity as tit-for-tat : rational retaliation in modern war

The 'gift' of humanitarianism : soft power and benevolent signaling

Martial honor in modern democracy : the JAGs as a source of national restraint

Roots of anti-reciprocity : transnational identity and national self-respect.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-18991-8

1-282-53924-8

9786612539244

0-511-81757-6

0-511-71891-8

0-511-71936-1

0-511-51520-0

0-511-71845-4

0-511-51648-7

OCLC:

609833431