The Enemy Combatant Papers: American Justice, the Courts, and the War on Terror [Hardcover]

Karen J. Greenberg (Editor), Joshua L. Dratel (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0521886473 | ISBN-13: 978-0521886475

The Enemy Combatants Papers presents the five major enemy combatant cases of the post-9/11 era. Presented in narrative form, these original documents tell the story that clarifies the questions at the heart of the American detention of alleged combatants in the war on terror. These documents discuss the right to counsel, the right to a trial, the right for the accused to see the evidence against him, and the intersection between domestic and international law. The book highlights the tension between the needs of national security and the liberties allotted to alleged enemies of the state by highlighting the basic question of what the U.S. Constitution guarantees and to whom. In these documents, the reader can follow the evolving arguments about presidential powers in time of war, habeas corpus, the Geneva Conventions, balance of powers, and matters of detention and prisoner treatment. Complemented with a comprehensive timeline and appendices that include the relevant cases from the Civil War, World War II, and the Korean War and the premises for setting up military commissions and Combatant Status Review Tribunals, this book is meant for those who seek to understand the issues - legal, political, and military - that have dominated the search for balance between justice and security in the war on terror.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The shame is in the details. Here is the record of what President Bush and his lawyers have done to American principles in detaining alleged terrorists, including U.S. citizens, without charges or trial. Some day--and it should be soon--all those responsible for this tormenting of the Constitution will be judged. The legal arguments are laid out in this book, coldly and compellingly."
---Anthony Lewis


"The definitive documentation of one of the most troubling experiments in modern history - the Bush administration's effort to establish the authority to capture and detain indefinitely anyone anywhere in the world, on the President's say-so that they are 'bad guys.' This necessary volume provides both the first-hand documents and the critical overview necessary to see how that experiment was launched, challenged, defeated, and revived."
---David Cole, Georgetown Law Center


"The Bush Administration charted a radical new set of legal policies after the events of 9/11. In concept they all came to the same focus: to give the president, as commander-in-chief, unprecedented power over persons who had been detained in the campaigns that followed. Of all the various approaches used, one of the most audacious was the introduction of a distinctive and new casting of the idea of "enemy combatant" which was designed to strip away a system of protections and rights that developed as a part of international humanitarian law over the prior century. This book collects original materials that document the evolution of this legal concept and a series of extraordinarily insightful introductory essays that put it all in clear perspective."
---Scott Horton, Columbia Law School


"This comprehensive volume tells a powerful story -- of executive power run amok, the human beings left in its wake, and the effort to use the courts to restore the rule of law and balance of powers in this country. When the definitive history of this period is written, those who write it will turn to this impressive collection as a primary source."
---Elisa Massimino, Washington Director, Human Rights First


"A valuable collection of primary source documents. It will be useful for law libraries, medium to large academic libraries, and collections focused on terrorism or national security."
---Choice

Book Description

The Supreme Court cases covered in detail in this volume constitute one of the most important chapters in American history. Preserving key constitutional rights of due process and the rule of law trumped the efforts of a president attempting to use the war on terror to create an executive branch able to operate outside established legal norms.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1040 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (August 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521886473
• ISBN-13: 978-0521886475
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.1 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,882,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Law > International Law > Private Law
  • #90 in Books > Law > Perspectives on Law > Conflict of Laws

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