Law's Trials
The Performance of Legal Institutions in the US 'War on Terror'

Law's Trials analyzes the performance of US courts in upholding the rule of law during the 'war on terror'.

Richard L. Abel (Author)

9781108453332, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 August 2019

859 pages, 15 tables
23 x 15.3 x 4.7 cm, 1.3 kg

'Law's Trials is a remarkable achievement, beginning with the near-encyclopedic coverage of all interactions between the judiciary and those accused of terrorism. But it is far more inasmuch as Abel also asks probing questions about the circumstances under which we should expect courts and judges to defend civil liberties against the combined weight of the state and public opinion willing to sacrifice those liberties as part of a 'war on terror'.' Sanford Levinson, author of Framed: America's 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance

The US 'war on terror' has repeatedly violated fundamental rule of law values. When executive and legislature commit such egregious wrongs, courts represent the ultimate defense. Law's Trials: The Performance of Legal Institutions in the US 'War on Terror' offers the first comprehensive account of judicial performance during the sixteen years of the Bush and Obama administrations. Abel examines criminal prosecutions of alleged terrorists, courts martial of military personnel accused of law of war violations, military commission trials of 'high value detainees', habeas corpus petitions by Guantánamo detainees, civil damage actions by victims of both the 'war on terror' and terrorism, and civil liberties violations by government officials and Islamophobic campaigners. Law's Trials identifies successful defenses of the rule of law through qualitative and quantitative analyses, comparing the behavior of judges within and between each category of cases and locating those actions in a comparative history of efforts to redress fundamental injustices.

1. Judging the judges
2. Criminal prosecutions
3. Courts martial
4. Military commissions
5. Habeas corpus
6. Civil damage actions
7. Civil liberties
8. Reversible error?

Subject Areas: Law & society [LAQ], Law [L], Warfare & defence [JW], Central government policies [JPQB], Central government [JPQ], Politics & government [JP], Society & social sciences [J]