Plunder: When the Rule of Law Is Illegal

Produktbeschreibung zu Plunder: When the Rule of Law Is Illegal

The Rule of Law has long been cherished in the US as the ultimate defender of civil liberty and the American way of life - a Rule of Law which no one can quite define, but everyone supports. In this provocative new book, Ugo Mattei and Laura Nader wage a frontal assault on this treasured belief in the sanctity of the Rule of Law, unflinchingly exploring its previously neglected dark side. They expose its intimate relationship with plunder - the practice of violent extraction by stronger political actors victimizing weaker ones - in the service of Western cultural and economic domination. Boldly conceived and vibrantly written, Plunder dares to ask the paradoxical question - is the Rule of Law itself illegal? Mattei and Nader expose global examples of plunder: of Native American lands, to the plunder of oil in Iraq; of ideas in the form of Western patents and intellectual property rights imposed on weaker peoples; and of liberty and the demise of Rule of Law in the United States. This thought-provoking text is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary law, politics, and social justice.

- Challenges traditionally held beliefs in the sanctity of the Rule of Law by exposing its dark side
- Examines the Rule of Law's relationship with "plunder"-the practice of violent extraction by stronger political actors victimizing weaker ones-in the service of Western cultural and economic domination
- Draws on comparative and historical data to provide global examples of plunder
- Brings the extensive legal advocacy and views of social justice of the authors to bear on the question: When is the Rule of Law illegal?

The Rule of Law is more than the cornerstone of our democracy. It is cherished as the ultimate defender of civil liberty and the American way of life. Yet its concepts are little understood, and no one can quite define it. But surely, everyone supports it ... don't they? In this provocative new book, two leading law scholars - Ugo Mattei and Laura Nader - wage an unflinching frontal assault on the Rule of Law that exposes the dark side of one of our most sacred founding principles.In a breathtaking indictment of the Rule of Law, the authors reveal its intimate relationship with "plunder" - the practice of violent extraction by stronger political actors victimizing weaker ones - in the service of Western cultural and economic domination. In effect, poor nations are plundered to benefit wealthy ones. The authors then dare to ask the seemingly paradoxical question: Is the Rule of Law itself illegal? Global examples of plunder abound - from oil in Iraq to ideas in the form of Western patents and intellectual property rights imposed on weaker nations. Indeed, plunder is evidenced in the stranglehold of our own personal liberties and the rapid evaporation of the Rule of Law in today's United States.Brilliantly conceived and flawlessly executed, Plunder: When the Rule of Law is Illegal is a bold and thought-provoking work of original scholarship that exposes the dangerous trends of American global policies and the demise of one of our most treasured beliefs - the sanctity of the Rule of Law.

Produktinformation

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Ugo Mattei is Distinguished Professor of International and Comparative Law at University of California, Hastings and at the University of Turin, Italy. He is a widely published scholar in economic and political aspects of law and his work has been translated into many languages. His professional activities have included substantive periods of teaching and research in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Laura Nader is Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Berkeley and is possibly the leading world authority in Anthropology of Law. She has conducted fieldwork in Lebanon, Mexico, and the US and her groundbreaking work on harmony ideology and access to law and her unmatchable publication list make Nader one of the most interesting voices in the current academic scene.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface.

Introduction.

1. Plunder and The Rule of Law.

An Anatomy of Plunder.

Plunder, Hegemony, and Positional Superiority.

Law, Plunder, and European Expansionism.

Institutionalizing Plunder: The Colonial Relationship and the Imperial Project.

A Story of Continuity: Constructing the Empire of Law (lessness).

2. Neo-liberalism: Economic Engine of Plunder.

The Argentinean Bonanza.

Neo-Liberalism: An Economic Theory of Simplification and a Spectacular Project.

Structural Adjustment Programs and the Comprehensive Development Framework.

Development Frameworks, Plunder, and the Rule of Law.

3. Before Neo-Liberalism: a Story of Western Plunder.

The European Roots of Colonial Plunder.

The Fundamental Structure of US Law as a Post-Colonial Reception.

A Theory of Lack, Yesterday and Today.

Before Neo-Liberalism: Colonial Practices and Harmonious Strategies--Yesterday and Now.

4. Plunder of Ideas and the Providers of Legitimacy.

Hegemony and legal Consciousness.

Intellectual Property as Plunder of Ideas.

Providing Legitimacy: Law and Economics.

Providing Legitimacy: Lawyers and Anthropologists.

5. Constructing the Conditions for Plunder.

Plunder of Oil: Iraq and Elsewhere.

The New World Order of Plunder.

Not Only Iraq: Plunder, War, and Legal Ideologies of Intervention.

Institutional Lacks as Conditions for Plunder: Real or Created?.

Double Standards Policy and Plunder.

Poverty: Justification for Intervention and Consequence of Plunder.

6. International Imperial Law.

Reactive Institutions of Imperial Plunder.

U.S. Rule of Law: Forms of Global Domination.

The Globalization of the American Way.

An Ideological Institution of Global Governance: International Law.

Holocaust Litigation: Back to the Future.

The Swallowing of International Law by U.S. law.

Economic Power and the U.S. Courts as Imperial Agencies.

7. Hegemony and Plunder. The Demise of the Rule of Law in the United States.

Strategies to Subordinate the Rule of Law to Plunder.

Plunder in High Places: Enron and its Aftermath.

Plunder in Even Higher Places: Electoral Politics and Plunder.

Plunder of Liberty: The War on Terror.

Plunder Undisrupted: The Discourse of Patriotism.

8. Beyond an Illegal Rule of Law?.

Summing Up: Plunder and The Global Transformation of the Law.

Imperial Rule of Law or the People's Rule of Law.

The Future of Plunder.

Notes to Text.

Selected Further Reading.

Documentary Film Resources.

Index