Beyond the Law: The Bush Administration's Unlawful Responses in the "War" on Terror
by Jordan J. Paust
List Price:
Our Price: $74.40
You Save: $10.60 (12%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Jordan J. PaustEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-09-24
ISBN: 0521884268
Number of pages: 326
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Book Reviews of Beyond the Law: The Bush Administration's Unlawful Responses in the "War" on Terror
Book Review: Finally!
Summary: 5 Stars
Professor Jordan Paust has written a very simple book in which his sole goal is to apply the law - primarily international law - to the actions of the Bush Administration in its "war on terror."
What is unusual is not only Paust's straightforward legal analysis for a lay public, but his fearlessness in the face of great wrongdoing and his willingness to articulate exactly what is wrong. Paust, of course, has the knowledge and credentials to know what he's talking about. He has been a professor of international law at the University of Houston since 1975, is a Fulbright Professor at the University of Salzburg (Austria), a Ford Foundation Fellow at Yale University, and visiting Ball Eminent Scholar University Chair at Florida State University. He is Co-Chair of the ASIL's International Criminal Law Interest Group and his publications have been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, other courts, and international tribunals. Paust also served in the military.
It may have been no great matter for Paust to write or assemble this collection of essays (all of which have been modified from articles he published in various prestigious law journals, to which he has been a frequent contributor over the past 25 years). He is trained to write this kind of stuff.
But given the high levels of wrongdoing he catalogs, his courage and steadfast adherence to unwavering moral principle must be commended and encouraged if there is to be any hope of recovery from the moral degradation brought on by this regime.
Simply stated, Paust shows that the Bush Administration repeatedly and intentionally violated intentional laws in its so-called "war on terror." Many of these violations constituted war crimes, both under international and domestic law.
The actual text of the book is only 130 pages, with another 170 pages of footnotes. The book, therefore, while dense is concise. (One need not read the footnotes, unless one wants more information.)
When I say the text is dense, I mean it is likely to require an extended effort (and possibly a second reading) by laymen to grasp the distinctions that Paust makes. It is not that Paust's language is too technical or legalistic (although he does occasionally use terms with which the general public may not be familiar). He writes well and clearly. What is difficult to follow are the unbelievably circuitous and meandering legal propositions made by the Bush Administration and the legal rectifications to those propositions. The law itself is complex but Paust does not make us labor to learn it. He condenses volumes into sentences and paragraphs.
However, despite the ease with which Paust articulates the facts and laws, there is so much to learn because so much has been left out of public understanding by the executive's misstatements and the media's failures. Of course, one could argue that members of the media need to read THIS book NOW in order to be able to properly understand and write about what is happening. It would be a rare journalist today who would know how to navigate the waters of the laws of war, which have developed gradually in a somewhat haphazard manner through centuries, and have been modified continually through treaties. This book can remedy media and public ignorance of this important field.
Paust catalogs the various executive plans and authorizations; the actors, abetments, and public paper trails; the refusals to prosecute those liable for these violations; secret detentions, renditions, and forced disappearances; the "We do not torture" ploy; illegal interrogation tactics; improper use of "enemy combatant" designations; mangling military manuals; and more.
The catalog of authorizations, alone, is devastating. Paust does not hedge when he writes: "The role that several lawyers played directly in a dreadful process of denial of protections is particularly disturbing. Not since the Nazi era have so many lawyers been so clearly involved in international crimes concerning the treatment and interrogation of persons detained during war."
He writes that whether or not any of these persons will be tried for their crimes, "the plans, authorizations, and attempted justifications have degraded or military and left a shameful stain on our country that will not be removed. The resultant crimes have served terrorist ambitions, aided their recruitment of others, and exacerbated the continual armed conflict in Iraq."
And finally:
"I know of no other instance in the long history of the United States of a plan approved by lawyers and at the highest levels of our government systematically to deny human beings protection under the laws of war. I know of no other denial by a President of the United States of the fact that the laws of war apply to an international armed conflict during which U.S. armed forces engage an enemy in battle. I know of no other authorization of a President to deny treatment required under the Geneva Conventions. I know of no other instance in our history when a Secretary of Defense, top U.S. generals, or a DOD Working Group approved such denials of protection or the use of interrogation tactics that were either patently violative of the laws of war or could clearly constitute violations in various circumstances."
This statement is found at the end of Chapter One and it is probably the strongest one in the book about the abuses of law that Paust observes. The fact that Paust only infrequently allows himself to express his outrage - and even then, in muted fashion couched in well-supported legal conclusions - makes such statements even more powerful when he does make them.
If you want to know why the term "enemy combatants" (or worse "unlawful enemy combatants") is a misnomer, legally misleading, and dangerous to OUR military personnel; if you want to know why the Geneva Conventions do apply to the present "war on terror" and why they do not need to be revised; if you want to know why President Bush's claim "We do not torture" attempts to avoid answering for violations of international law; if you want to finally really understand what is going on legally, to find the moral compass that has long existed in the laws of war, please read - and reread - this book.
Summary of Beyond the Law: The Bush Administration's Unlawful Responses in the "War" on Terror
This book provides a detailed exposition of violations of international law authorized and abetted by secret memos, authorizations, and orders of the Bush administration. In particular, it describes why several executive claims were in error, what illegal authorizations were given, what illegal interrogation tactics were approved, and what illegal transfers and secret detentions occurred. It provides the most thorough documentation of cases demonstrating that the president is bound by the laws of war; that decisions to detain persons, decide their status, and mistreat them are subject to judicial review during the war; and that the commander-in-chief power is subject to restraints by Congress.General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in General Books
Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in Criminal Justice (Ethics in Crime and Justice)by Joycelyn M. Pollock
Wadsworth Publishing; Published: 2006-04-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $66.71
Price in other shops:
Emanuel Law Outlines: Criminal Law (Emanuel Law Outlines)Aspen Publishers; Published: 2007-07-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $30.00
Price in other shops:
Gilbert Law Summaries : Criminal Lawby George E. Dix
Gilberts Law Summaries; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.00
Price in other shops:
Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science (College Edition) (9th Edition)by Richard Saferstein
Prentice Hall; Published: 2006-07-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $80.00
Price in other shops:
Criminal Lawby Joel Samaha
Wadsworth Publishing; Published: 2007-03-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $99.45
Price in other shops:
Criminal Justice Today (10th Edition) (MyCrimeKit Series)by Frank Schmalleger
Prentice Hall; Published: 2008-02-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $94.71
Price in other shops:
Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st Century (9th Edition)by Frank Schmalleger
Prentice Hall; Published: 2006-02-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $28.96
Price in other shops:
Understanding Criminal Lawby Joshua Dressler
LexisNexis; Published: 2006-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $36.97
Price in other shops:
Criminal Law Examples & Explanations, 4e (Examples & Explanations)by Singer; LaFond
Aspen Publishers; Published: 2007-02-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $28.44
Price in other shops:
Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Familyby Joaquin "Jack" Garcia
Touchstone; Published: 2008-10-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.65
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
How Judges Thinkby Richard A. Posner
Harvard University Press; Published: 2008-04-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.98
Price in other shops:
The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalismby Andrew Bacevich
Metropolitan Books; Published: 2008-08-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.20
Price in other shops:
Terror and Consent : The Wars for the Twenty-First Centuryby Philip Bobbitt
Knopf; Published: 2008-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $20.08
Price in other shops:
Absolute Power: How the Unitary Executive Theory Is Undermining the Constitution (Century Foundation Books (Century Foundation Press))by John P. Mackenzie
Century Foundation Press; Published: 2008-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.76
Price in other shops:
Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracyby Charlie Savage
Back Bay Books; Published: 2008-04-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.08
Price in other shops:
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Idealsby Jane Mayer
Doubleday; Published: 2008-07-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.95
Price in other shops:
Torture and Democracyby Darius Rejali
Princeton University Press; Published: 2007-11-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $26.55
Price in other shops:
The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administrationby Jack L. Goldsmith
W. W. Norton; Published: 2007-09-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.95
Price in other shops:
Bush's Law: The Remaking of American Justiceby Eric Lichtblau
Pantheon; Published: 2008-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.18
Price in other shops:
Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Valuesby Philippe Sands
Palgrave Macmillan; Published: 2008-05-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.59
Price in other shops: