European University Institute Library

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

eng

index present

non fiction

The end of reciprocity

electronic resource

dictionaries

607553622

Mark Osiel

Cambridge Social Sciences eBooks

terror, torture, and the law of war

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.--, Provided by publisher

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