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  2. Sacred Violence: Torture, Terror, and Sovereignty

Sacred Violence: Torture, Terror, and Sovereignty

Paul W. Kahn 2008
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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.

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Series
  • Law, Meaning, and Violence
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-02294-6 (ebook)
  • 978-0-472-05047-5 (paper)
  • 978-0-472-07047-3 (hardcover)
Subject
  • Philosophy
  • Law:International Law
  • Law:Law and Society
  • Middle and Near Eastern Studies
  • Political Science:Human Rights
  • Law:Supreme Court and Constitutional Law
  • Political Science:International Relations
Citable Link
  • Table of Contents

  • Stats

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • Dedication
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • Introduction: The Puzzle of Torture
  • PART I. GENEALOGICAL INQUIRIES
    • 1. Torture and Sovereignty
    • 2. Torture and International Law
    • 3. The Current Debate: Torture in the War on Terror
  • PART II. VIOLENCE AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE POLITICAL IMAGINATION
    • 4. A Primer on Political Violence
    • 5. Crossing the Border between Law and Sovereignty
  • Conclusion: Torture, Terror, and Sacrifice
  • Notes
  • Index
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