Dworkin on the “war on terror”

by Chris Bertram on October 9, 2003

Via “Larry Solum”:http://www.lsolum.blogspot.com/2003_10_01_lsolum_archive.html#106566263824779405 , I see Ronald Dworkin’s “Rights and Terror”:http://www.law.nyu.edu/clppt/program2003/readings/dworkin.pdf (pdf). Dworkin provides both a useful catalogue of the Bush administration’s restrictions on the rights of both citizens and non-citizens of the US since September 11th. He concedes that many of those detained fail to fit into the models provided either by the traditional laws of war or the criminal law. It is incumbent on us, therefore, to think through what justice requires in this new situation. The Bush administration, though, has not done so.

bq. The Bush administration and their supporters say that a new structure, which they call a new balance, is necessary. But they propose not a new structure but none at all: they assume the privileges of both models and the constraints of neither.

{ 2 comments }

1

sym 10.12.03 at 8:52 am

But what does Andrea have to say about the war on terror? The world wants to know…

2

Dr. M.Bick 10.15.03 at 8:59 pm

I would highly recommend this article by Dworkin, the most powerful and well articulated legal and moral indictment of Bush and Co to date.
Can´t wait to see how the President´s supporters answer his claims…

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