National Security Secrecy
Comparative Effects on Democracy and the Rule of Law

This book considers how excessive national security secrecy undercuts democracy and the rule of law, necessitating comparative and critical analysis toward potential reforms.

Sudha Setty (Author)

9781107576476, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 July 2017

244 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.37 kg

'Sudha Setty writes with remarkable dexterity about the exponential increase in the powers of the state to remain secret while enhancing national security regimes in the war against terror. Setty gives a comprehensive account of how national security secrecy is enabled legally and politically in contemporary democracies at the expense of structural accountability, rule of law and fundamental rights.' Ujjwal Kumar Singh, University of Delhi

Excessive government secrecy in the name of counterterrorism has had a corrosive effect on democracy and the rule of law. In the United States, when controversial national security programs were run by the Bush and Obama administrations - including in areas of targeted killings, torture, extraordinary rendition, and surveillance - excessive secrecy often prevented discovery of those actions. Both administrations insisted they acted legally, but often refused to explain how they interpreted the governing law to justify their actions. They also fought to keep Congress from exercising oversight, to keep courts from questioning the legality of these programs, and to keep the public in the dark. Similar patterns have arisen in other democracies around the world. In National Security Secrecy, Sudha Setty takes a critical and comparative look at these problems and demonstrates how government transparency, privacy, and accountability should provide the basis for reform.

Introduction
Part I. The Infrastructure of Secrecy in the United States: 1. Executive branch secrecy
2. Congressional complicity
3. An overly deferential judiciary
Part II. Comparative Perspectives on Transparency: 4. International and supranational norms
5. The United Kingdom
6. India
Part III. Societal Tolerance for National Security Secrecy: 7. Public and political resilience
8. Individual privacy and secrecy: a matter of contract or a human right?
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Constitutional & administrative law [LND]