ENGLISH

Sacred Violence: Torture, Terror, and Sovereignty (Law, Meaning, and Violence)

By Paul W. Kahn

Book information

Publisher
University of Michigan Press
Year
2008
ISBN
0472050478, 9780472050475, 0472070479, 9780472070473
LCC
K5304 .K34 2008
Google Books ID
deIWY5PACmgC
Open Library ID
OL16681053M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
12 MB (12191358 bytes)
Series
Law, Meaning, and Violence
Pages
248\248
Orientation
no
Scanned
yes
Time added
2011-08-31 04:54:40

Description

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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