Mattei / Nader Plunder

When the Rule of Law is Illegal
1. Auflage 2008
ISBN: 978-0-470-69580-7
Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 296 Seiten, E-Book

Plunder examines the dark side of the Rule of Law andexplores how it has been used as a powerful political weapon byWestern countries in order to legitimize plunder - thepractice of violent extraction by stronger political actorsvictimizing weaker ones.
* Challenges traditionally held beliefs in the sanctity of theRule of Law by exposing its dark side
* Examines the Rule of Law's relationship with 'plunder' -the practice of violent extraction by stronger political actorsvictimizing weaker ones - in the service of Western culturaland economic domination
* Provides global examples of plunder: of oil in Iraq; of ideasin the form of Western patents and intellectual property rightsimposed on weaker peoples; and of liberty in the United States
* Dares to ask the paradoxical question - is the Rule ofLaw itself illegal?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mattei, Ugo

Nader, Laura

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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 theImperial 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 aSpectacular Project.
Structural Adjustment Programs and the Comprehensive DevelopmentFramework.
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-ColonialReception.
A Theory of Lack, Yesterday and Today.
Before Neo-Liberalism: Colonial Practices and HarmoniousStrategies--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 ofIntervention.
Institutional Lacks as Conditions for Plunder: Real orCreated?.
Double Standards Policy and Plunder.
Poverty: Justification for Intervention and Consequence ofPlunder.
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: InternationalLaw.
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 theUnited 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 andPlunder.
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 theLaw.
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

Über Autor(innen)

Ugo Mattei is Distinguished Professor of International andComparative Law at University of California, Hastings and at theUniversity of Turin, Italy. He is a widely published scholar ineconomic and political aspects of law and his work has beentranslated into many languages. His professional activities haveincluded substantive periods of teaching and research in Europe,Africa, and Latin America.
Laura Nader is Professor of Anthropology at University ofCalifornia, Berkeley and is possibly the leading world authority inAnthropology of Law. She has conducted fieldwork in Lebanon,Mexico, and the US and her groundbreaking work on harmony ideologyand access to law and her unmatchable publication list make Naderone of the most interesting voices in the current academicscene.