Global Justice and Due Process

Examines due process as center stage in international law, especially in connection with legal black holes such as Guantanamo.

Larry May (Author)

9780521762724, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 December 2010

262 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.52 kg

"...Global Justice and Due Process covers an impressive range of theoretical issues in a little over two hundred pages, including the nature of the value of the rule of law, the historical origins of the Magna Carta, and the conditions needed for a norm to be recognized as jus cogens... an excellent book, tackling a new philosophical question in a clear, well argued, and original manner."
--Colleen Murphy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Journal of Moral Philosophy

The idea of due process of law is recognised as the cornerstone of domestic legal systems, and in this book Larry May makes a powerful case for its extension to international law. Focussing on the procedural rights deriving from Magna Carta, such as the rights of habeas corpus (not to be arbitrarily incarcerated) and nonrefoulement (not to be sent to a state where harm is likely), he examines the legal rights of detainees, whether at Guantanamo or in refugee camps. He offers a conceptual and normative account of due process within a general system of global justice, and argues that due process should be recognised as jus cogens, as universally binding in international law. His vivid and compelling study will be of interest to a wide range of readers in political philosophy, political theory, and the theory and practice of international law.

1. Introduction: understanding global procedural justice
Part I. Procedural Rights and Magna Carta's Legacy: 2. Magna Carta and the interstices of procedure
3. The nature and value of procedural rights
4. International law and the inner morality of law
Part II. Habeas Corpus and Jus Cogens: 5. Habeas corpus as a minimalist right
6. Due process, judicial review, and expanding habeas corpus
7. Habeas corpus as jus cogens in international law
Part III. Deportation, Outlawry and Trial by Jury: 8. Collective punishment and mass confinement
9. Non-refoulement and rendition
10. The right to be subject to international law
Part IV. Security and Global Institutions: 11. Alternative institutional structures
12. Global procedural rights and security.

Subject Areas: International law [LB], Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Political science & theory [JPA], Social & political philosophy [HPS]