Evil, Law and the State: Perspectives on State Power and ViolenceJohn T. Parry The topic of "evil" means different things depending upon context. For some, it is an archaic term, while others view it as a central problem of ethics, psychology, or politics. Coupled with state power, the problem of evil takes on a special salience for most observers. When governments do evil -in whatever way we define the term - the scale of harm increases, sometimes exponentially. The evils of state violence, then, demand our attention and concern. Yet the linkage of evil with state power does not resolve the underlying question of how to understand the concepts that we invoke when we use the term. Instead, the question becomes what evil means in the context of and in relation to state power. The fifteen essays in this book bring multiple perspectives to bear on the problems of state-sponsored evil and violence, and on the ways in which law enables or responds to them. The approaches and conclusions articulated by the various contributors sometimes complement and sometimes stand in tension with each other, but as a whole they contribute to our ongoing effort to understand the characteristics and workings of state power, and our need to grapple with the harm it causes. |
Contents
1 | |
Too Many Foreigners for My Taste Law Race and Ethnicity in California 18481852 | 17 |
Protection Harm and Social Evil The Age of Consent c 1885c 1940 | 31 |
Sin Scandal and Disaster Politics and Crime in Contemporary Turkey | 47 |
Adding Injury To Injury The Case of Rape and Prostitution in Turkey | 59 |
Exception as the Norm and the Fiction of Sovereignty The Lack of the Right to Health Care in the Occupied Territories | 71 |
Mental Health Care During Apartheid in South Africa An Illustration of How Science Can be Abused | 87 |
Schistosomiasis and Capital Marxism | 101 |
The Lessons of Nuremberg and the Trial of Saddam Hussein | 127 |
Responsibility for Atrocity Individual Criminal Agency and the International Criminal Court | 143 |
Humanity and Inhumanity State Power and the Force of Law in the Prescription of Juridical Norms | 159 |
New Balance Evil and the Scales of Justice | 173 |
The Execution as Sacrifice | 183 |
Legitimacy and Violence On the Relation between Law and Justice According to Rawls and Derrida | 199 |
Notes on Contributors | 211 |
The Inevitable Impunity of Suicide Terrorists | 111 |
Other editions - View all
Evil, Law and the State: Perspectives on State Power and Violence John T. Parry No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
abuse Agamben age of consent Anglo-Americans anomy Apartheid argued atrocities attacks become California California Gold Rush Capital Marxism Chileans Chinese citizens civil claims coercion committed concept context Court crime D'Cruze defendants democracy Derrida discourse emergency enforcement evil exception execution feminist force Gender genocide girls harm human rights Ibid individual International Criminal Court international criminal law international law interrogation Israel Israeli judicial justified killing authority legitimacy legitimate Marx Marxism McVeigh mens rea Mexicans modern moral Nablus nature Nazi non-whites norms Nuremberg Occupied Territories offender organizations Ottoman Palestinian Palestinian Authority perpetrator person political principles problem prosecution prostitution protection punishment question racial rape Rawls reason responsibility ritual role Rome Statute rule sacrifice schistosomiasis sexual social society sovereign sovereignty suicidal impunity suicide terrorism suicide terrorists Susurluk Theory of Justice torture trial tribunal Turkey Turkish victim violence women