Emergencies and the Limits of Legality

Victor V. Ramraj0521895995, 9780521895996

This book was first published in 2008. Most modern states turn swiftly to law in an emergency. The global response to the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States was no exception, and the wave of legislative responses is well documented. Yet there is an ever-present danger, borne out by historical and contemporary events, that even the most well-meaning executive, armed with extraordinary powers, will abuse them. This inevitably leads to another common tendency in an emergency, to invoke law not only to empower the state but also in a bid to constrain it. Can law constrain the emergency state or must the state at times act outside the law when its existence is threatened? If it must act outside the law, is such conduct necessarily fatal to aspirations of legality? This collection of essays – at the intersection of legal, political and social theory and practice – explores law’s capacity to constrain state power in times of crisis.

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Table of contents :
Cover……Page 1
Half-title……Page 3
Title……Page 5
Copyright……Page 6
Dedication……Page 7
CONTENTS……Page 9
CONTRIBUTORS……Page 11
PREFACE……Page 13
Introduction……Page 15
1.1 Introduction……Page 17
1.2.1 Conceptual and normative theories……Page 23
1.2.2 Political and sociological theories……Page 26
1.3.1 Prospective constraints on state power……Page 30
1.3.2 Judicial responses to official disobedience……Page 33
1.4 Post-colonial and international perspectives……Page 36
1.5 The scope and limits of legality……Page 38
1.5.1 Methodological approaches and disciplinary perspectives……Page 39
1.5.2 The road ahead……Page 41
PART ONE Legality and extra-legality……Page 45
2.1 Introduction……Page 47
2.2 The state of emergency in legal theory……Page 48
2.3 Realism and the political constitution……Page 51
2.4 Extra-legal measures model……Page 54
2.5 Is the prerogative in or outside the constitution?……Page 56
2.6 Dicey’s legality model……Page 60
2.7 The unlegalisable……Page 66
2.8 Conclusion……Page 70
3.1 Introduction……Page 74
3.2 Legal black holes: beyond the legal frontier?……Page 75
3.2 Ex post ratification……Page 78
3.2.1 Modes of ratification……Page 79
3.3 The effects of ex post ratification……Page 83
3.4 Ex post ratification and legal black holes……Page 85
3.5 Candour……Page 95
3.6 Institutional arrangements……Page 99
3.7 Final remarks……Page 105
PART TWO Conceptual and normative theories……Page 109
4 Emergency logic: prudence, morality and the rule of law……Page 111
4.1. The idea of the rule of law……Page 113
4.2 The logic of exception in the rule of law……Page 119
4.3 What does it mean to ‘justify’ action contrary to law?……Page 125
5.1 Introduction……Page 132
5.2 Indefinite detention in Malaysia and Singapore……Page 133
5.3 Rule by law and rule of law……Page 143
5.4 Indefinite detention and legal archetypes……Page 149
PART THREE Political and sociological theories……Page 157
6 The political constitution of emergency powers: some conceptual issues……Page 159
7.1 Introduction……Page 170
7.2 Institutions as means to moral ends……Page 171
7.3 Multiple moral ends and the most moral means……Page 175
7.4 Flexibility and agency in political institutions……Page 180
7.5 Formal and informal power and constraint……Page 181
7.6 Conclusion……Page 185
8 Law, terror and social movements: the repression-mobilisation nexus……Page 186
8.1 Perspective matters: the need for self-consciousness……Page 188
8.2 Law, repression and mobilisation……Page 191
8.3 Implications for Gross–Dyzenhaus……Page 201
8.4 What’s new? Elements of a legal research agenda on the ‘war on terror’……Page 208
PART FOUR Prospective constraints on state power……Page 213
9 Emergency strategies for prescriptive legal positivists: anti-terrorist law and legal theory……Page 215
9.1 Prescriptive legal positivism and the rule of law……Page 218
9.2 Parliaments and courts in the authorisation of emergency powers……Page 227
9.3 The Gross–Dyzenhaus debate……Page 236
10.1 Introduction……Page 243
10.2 Is the debate about emergencies or rights?……Page 245
10.3 The ordinary law of emergencies……Page 248
10.3.1 American legislation and reform proposals……Page 249
10.3.2 United Kingdom legislation……Page 252
10.3.3 Canadian legislation……Page 254
10.3.4 Summary……Page 257
10.4 The derogation model of emergencies……Page 258
10.4.1 Derogation under the American suspension clause……Page 260
10.4.2 The Canadian model of derogation……Page 263
10.4.3 The European and international model of derogation……Page 265
10.4.4 Summary……Page 268
10.5 Conclusion……Page 270
11 Presidentialism and emergency government……Page 272
11.1 Presidents and their emergencies……Page 273
11.2 Oren Gross and the extra-legal model of emergency regulation……Page 282
11.3 David Dyzenhaus and the common law model……Page 287
11.4 A way out?……Page 292
PART FIVE Judicial responses to official disobedience……Page 301
12 Necessity, torture and the rule of law……Page 303
12.1……Page 304
12.2……Page 307
12.3……Page 313
12.4……Page 317
12.5……Page 324
13 Deny everything: intelligence activities and the rule of law……Page 328
13.1 Ratification……Page 330
13.2 Deliberation……Page 332
13.3 Mitigation……Page 341
13.4 Conclusion……Page 346
PART SIX Post-colonial and interational perspectives……Page 349
14.1 Introduction……Page 351
14.2 Extra-legal and legality models……Page 355
14.3 Colonialism and the rule of law……Page 358
14.4 Bare life: colonialism, ‘race’ and law……Page 361
14.5 Rule of law or rule of colonial difference?……Page 368
14.6 Conclusion: colonialism and a culture of justification……Page 370
15.1 Introduction……Page 374
15.2 The international state of emergency and jurisdictional politics……Page 378
15.3 The struggle over legality……Page 387
15.3.1 Competing normative-legal claims……Page 389
15.3.2 The relationship between law and politics……Page 391
15.3.3 Risk and moral geography of law……Page 393
15.4 Conclusion……Page 396
16.1 Introduction……Page 399
16.2 The ‘exceptional’ nature of international legal regulation……Page 400
16.3.1 The facts……Page 401
16.3.2 Applying the Geneva Conventions under US law……Page 402
16.3.3 (Dis-)applying the Geneva Conventions to the Taliban and al Qaeda……Page 404
16.3.4.1 Historical background……Page 406
16.3.4.2 The Bush administration’s theory……Page 408
16.4 The Bybee Memo and international law exceptionalism……Page 410
16.5 The sphere of international legality……Page 412
16.6 A textured view of international legality……Page 413
16.7 Revisiting the Gross–Dyzenhaus debate……Page 416
16.8 Conclusion……Page 419
INDEX……Page 422