MACMILLAN Law, Security and the State of Perpetual Emergency

Presenting diverse contributors from legal, academic, and practitioner sectors, this book illustrates how the distinctions between international and domestic law are falling away in the context of security, particularly in the responses to terrorism, and explores the implications of these dramatic shifts in the normative order. Fundamental changes in the powers of the state and the rights of populations have accelerated since the globalized response to 9/11, creating effects that spread beyond borders and operate in a new, as yet under-conceptualized space. Although these altered practices were said to be in response to exceptional circumstances ― a response to terrorism ― they have become increasingly established in an altered baseline norm. This book explores the (inter)national implications of exceptional legal efforts to protect states’ domestic space in the realm of security. Review “Linda Bishai has succeeded in bringing together a remarkable collection of essays on the myriad ways in which exceptions and exceptionalism continue to shape politics, law and national security. The international, historical and disciplinary diversity of the contributions is both impressive and valuable. While the book’s intellectual and empirical centre of gravity is the post-9/11 United States, the chapters range across continents, regime types, and historical antecedents of 21 st century counterterrorism. Uniquely on this topic, many of the contributing authors bring both academic insight and practical experience to their work, with most having high level expertise in national and international legal practice, advisory boards, international institutions, and advocacy groups. As a result, the strength of this collection is not only to advance our understanding of the many seemingly perpetual emergencies in law and politics, but to spell out in detail what they mean in practice. In these contemporary cases, and in keeping with historical experience, executive powers created to deal with putative emergencies inevitably become normalized. The essays demonstrate the sheer variety of ways this takes place. The archetypal emergency shift of powers from legislative assemblies to executive or sovereign decision is still at work, but here we also hear about the extension of legal and political exceptionalism to new domains such as drone warfare, cyberspace, terrorist rehabilitation, policing, and special courts. The historically oriented chapters show how counterterrorism is not the only lens through which to understand these practices, demonstrating a striking continuity with colonialism and anti-mafia campaigns. Two decades on from 9/11, Law, Security and the Perpetual State of Emergency bears witness to the persistence of exceptionalism in the contemporary political and legal experience. “ ― Andrew Neal, author of the book “Security as Politics: Beyond the State of Exception” (U. of Edinburgh Press, 2019)   “Law, Security and the State of Perpetual Emergency is a timely re-engagement with phenomena of emergency and exception, and whose consequences are as fascinating as they are elusive. By inquiring into how a state of exception has become normalized in world politics during the past decades, the contributors add fresh and critical insights into its wide-ranging effects on legal and political order. This book deserves to be read by anyone interested in exceptionality and its harrowing consequences.” ―Jens Bartelson, Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, Lund University, Sweden   “In a masterful way, the authors of this book have fused together a monumental task of research and analysis from academia, practitioner and policy perspectives. In a world fueled by bipartisanship and black and white interpretation, this fresh contribution brings together expertise that is well recognized domestically and internationally. In a post 9/11 world and current COVID-19 pandemic, the appropriat