Torture, Terror, and Trade-Offs

Jeremy Waldron is Professor of Law at the New York University Law School. He is one of the leading figures working in legal and political philosophy and his major works include The Right to Private Property (OUP, 1988), Law and Disagreement (OUP, 1999), and The Dignity of Legislation (1999). He took up the Chichele Professorship in Social and Political Theory at the University of Oxford in 2010.

The attacks of September 11 and the response to them of the Bush presidency sorted out where academics truly stood on the great moral issues of the day. Where many bowed to power and panic, Jeremy Waldron's integrity under pressure, his unfashionable commitment to reason and to ethical absolutes, and the beauty of his writing have made him not only the leading political thinker of his generation but now also clearly one of the most courageous.

• 1. Introduction ; 2. Security and Liberty: the Image of Balance ; 3. Terrorism and the Uses of Terror ; 4. Civilians, Terrorism, and Deadly Serious Conventions ; 5. Safety and Security ; 6. Security as a Basic Right (after 9/11) ; 7. Torture and Positive Law ; 8. What Can Christian Teaching Add to the Debate about Torture? ; 9. Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment: The Words Themselves ; 10. The Rule of International Law