Full Description
The idea of sovereignty and the debates that surroundit are not merely of historical, academic, or legal interest: they are also potent, vibrant issues and as current and relevant as today's front page news in the United States and in other Western democracies. In thepost- 9/11United States, the growth of the national security state has resulted in a growingstruggle to maintain the legal and ethical boundaries surrounding executive authority, boundaries that help to define and protect democratic governance. Thesepost-9/11 developments and their effect on the scope of presidential power present hard questions and arefueling today'sintensedebates among political leaders, citizens,constitutional scholars,historians, and philosophers.
This volume will contribute to the public conversation on the nature of executive authority and its relation to the broader topic of sovereignty in several ways. First, readers will learn that the current vital questions surrounding the nature of executive authority and presidential power have their intellectual roots in historical and philosophical writings about the nature of sovereignty. Second, sovereignty has historically been a complicated topic; this volume helps identify the terms of the debate. Third, and most critically, citizens' understanding of the concept of sovereignty is essential to grasping the available options for confronting current challenges to the rule of law in democratic societies.
The volume's 15 essays, drawn from among the disciplines of law, political, science, philosophy, and international relations,covers an expansive series of topics, from historical theories and international affairs, to governmental transparency and legitimacy. The volume also focuses on thechanges in the concept of sovereignty post-9/11 in the United States and their impact on democracy and the rule of law, particularly in the area of national security practice.
Contents
Foreword by Alberto Mora
Table of Contents
Contributors
Introduction by Claire Finkelstein
PART I: The Intellectual Roots of Sovereignty
1. Hobbes on Sovereign Authority: How the Right of Nature Becomes Sovereign Right
David Gauthier
2. Kant on the Right and Duty of Sovereignty
Jacob Weinrib
3. Sovereignty and Freedom
William E. O'Brian Jr.
PART II: SOVEREIGNTY in the Present Age: Modern Executive Authority In a Constitutional Democracy
4. Defining and Constraining the Sovereign: "The Most Difficulty of All Tasks"
Charles Fried
5. Sovereignty and the Power of the Sovereign
Christopher Morris
6. Locating Sovereignty in Systems of Divided and Limited Government
S.A. Lloyd
7. The Publian President in the 21st Century
Sanford Levinson
PART III: Vertical Sovereignty: Presidential Powers and National Security
8. The Imperial Presidency and the Rule of Law
Claire Finkelstein
9. A Two-Level Account of Executive Authority
Michael Skerker
10. Transparency and Executive Authority
Chris Naticchia
11. Secret Laws and Tribunals
Larry May
Part IV: Horizontal Sovereignty: International Relations and War
12. Logically Private Laws: Legislative Secrecy in 'The War on Terror'
Duncan MacIntosh
13. A Global Practice-based Conception of Domestic Sovereignty
Aaron James
14. Contract, Treaty, and Sovereignty
Matthew Lister
15. National Insecurity: Democracy, War, and Popular Sovereignty
Alexander Guerrero
Index
