Sacred Violence: Torture, Terror, and Sovereignty

by Paul W. Kahn

Overview

In Sacred Violence, the distinguished political and legal theorist Paul W. Kahn investigates the reasons for the resort to violence characteristic of premodern states. In a startling argument, he contends that law will never offer an adequate account of political violence. Instead, we must turn to political theology, which reveals that torture and terror are, essentially, forms of sacrifice. Kahn forces us to acknowledge what we don't want to see: that we remain deeply committed to a violent politics beyond law.

Paul W. Kahn is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities at Yale Law School and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights.

Cover Illustration: "Abu Ghraib 67, 2005" by Fernando Botero. Courtesy of the artist and the American University Museum.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780472050475
Publisher:	University of Michigan Press
Publication date:	08/04/2008
Series:	Law, Meaning, And Violence
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Paul W. Kahn is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities at Yale Law School and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Puzzle of Torture     1
Genealogical Inquiries     17
Torture and Sovereignty     21
Torture and International Law     42
The Current Debate: Torture in the War on Terror     70
Violence and the Architecture of the Political Imagination     91
A Primer on Political Violence     93
Crossing the Border between Law and Sovereignty     131
Conclusion: Torture, Terror, and Sacrifice     170
Notes     179
Index     207

Editorial Reviews

"...a blistering critique of the commitment to law and rights as the highest rationale of politics and of those who see modern history as tending toward the realization of that commitment." 
—Julian Bourg, Humanity

Humanity - Julian Bourg