Is torture the inevitable reaction to terrorism?

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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.

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.

"...a blistering critique of the commitment to law and rights as the highest rationale of politics and of those who see modern history as tending toward the realization of that commitment." 
—Julian Bourg, Humanity

- Julian Bourg

 

Listen: "Sacrifice of Life for the State?", CUNY radio interview with Paul Kahn and Austin Sarat

 

Listen: Yale University: Books and Authors interview and reading with Paul Kahn

Read: Review Law and Politics Book Review

Read: Article OpEdNews | 2/8/2009

Read: Blog Experimental Theology | 4/20/2009