A.M. Viens is a Research Fellow in the Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany and an external member of the UCL Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction, United Kingdom. Michael J. Selgelid is Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Human Bioethics, Monash University, Australia.

• Contents: Introduction; Part I The Nature and Significance of Emergency: Definition of sovereignty, Carl Schmitt; Morality and emergency, Tom Sorell; Making sense of ’public’ emergencies, François Tanguay-Renaud. Part II Ethical Issues in Emergency: Lifeboat ethics and disaster: should we blow up the fat man?, Naomi Zack; The moral black hole, Per Sandin and Misse Wester; Disappearing without a moral trace? Rights and compensation during times of emergency, Simon Wigley; Deontology at the threshold, Larry Alexander; A first-order ethic of solidarity and reciprocity, David Wiggins; The ethics of emergencies, Ayn Rand. Part III Ethical Issues in Emergency Public Policy and Law: Specifying rights out of necessity, John Oberdiek; 'Necessity knows no law': on extreme cases and uncodifiable necessities, Alon Harel and Assaf Sharon; In extremis, Arthur Ripstein; Law, looting and lawlessness, Stuart P. Green; The ethics of price gouging, Matt Zwolinski. Part IV War, Terrorism and Supreme Emergencies: The ethics of emergency, Michael Ignatieff; Emergency ethics, Michael Walzer; Terrorism, morality and supreme emergency, C.A.J. Coady; Supreme emergencies revisited, Daniel Statman; Supreme emergencies without the bad guys, Per Sandin. Part V Public Health and Humanitarian Emergencies: Is human rights prepared? Risk, rights and public health emergencies, Thérèse Murphy and Noel Whitty; Ethics and global climate change, Stephen M. Gardiner; Living on a lifeboat, Garrett Hardin; Lifeboat Earth, Onora O'Neill; Famine, affluence and morality, Peter Singer; Distribution and emergency, Jennifer Rubenstein; Name index.