Introduction -- The embrace of authoritarian legality -- The harbinger theory in politics, culture, and public opinion -- The future of terror in expert literature and the advocacy of extreme measures -- Opportunity lost: liberal deference to the harbinger theory -- An alternative case for reform -- Outstanding questions and recommendations for reform
Summary
North American law has been transformed in ways unimaginable before 9/11. Laws now authorise and courts have condoned indefinite detention without charge on secret evidence, mass secret surveillance, and targeted killing of U.S. citizens, suggesting a shift in the cultural currency of a liberal form of legality to authoritarian legality. This book demonstrates that extreme measures have been consistently embraced in politics, scholarship, and public opinion in a specific belief that 9/11 was the harbinger of a new order of terror
