The War in Court

Inside the Long Fight against Torture
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-0-520-40967-5
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 376 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 154 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 534 g

How hundreds of lawyers mobilized to challenge the illegal treatment of prisoners captured in the war on terror and helped force an end to the US government's most odious policies.
 
In The War in Court, sociologist Lisa Hajjar traces the fight against the US torture policy by lawyers who brought the "war on terror" into the courts. Their victories, though few and far between, forced the government to change the way prisoners were treated and focused attention on state crimes perpetrated in the shadows. If not for these lawyers and their allies, US torture would have gone unchallenged because elected officials and the American public, with a few exceptions, did nothing to oppose it. This war in court has been fought to defend the principle that there is no legal right to torture.

Told as a suspenseful, high-stakes story, The War in Court clearly outlines why challenges to the torture policy had to be waged on the legal terrain and why hundreds of lawyers joined the fight. Drawing on extensive interviews with key participants, her own experiences reporting from Guantánamo, and her deep knowledge of international law and human rights, Hajjar reveals how the ongoing fight against torture has had transformative effects on the legal landscape in the United States and on a global scale.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hajjar, Lisa

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Rechtswissenschaften Allgemeines Verfahrens-, Zivilprozess- und Insolvenzrecht Allgemeines Prozessrecht, Kostenrecht
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Menschenrechte, Bürgerrechte
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Historische & Regionale Volkskunde

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Preface

Introduction: Why Torture Matters
1 • Taking the "War on Terror" to Court
2 • Enter the Warriors
3 • Mapping the Lines of Battle
4 • The War in Court Takes Off
5 • Winning Some, Losing Some
6 • Fighting for Justice at Home and Abroad
7 • Trying Guantánamo
8 • New Battles, Same War
9 • Obama's Guantánamo
10 • The Last Front
Conclusion: The Afterlives of Torture

Acknowledgments
Sources and Further Readings
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Lisa Hajjar is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose work focuses on the relationship between law and conflict. She is the author of Courting Conflict and Torture: A Sociology of Violence and Human Rights.