Law and Violence in Transnational Perspective

Session Submission Type: Paper Session: Talk Format

Abstract

A common theme in the three papers on this panel is the relationship between law and violence in the context of war. Law serves an important function as a means of framing state violence and discrimination as legitimate and necessary. At the same time however law can be used by critics to challenge the legality of state policy and to pursue accountability for gross violations. The panel will present three perspectives on how law is used by the US government to legitimize policies undertaken in the pursuit of national security. Each paper engages explicitly, albeit differently, with US policies and militarized practices in the Middle East.

Sub Unit

• American Studies Association Annual Meeting

Chair

• Asli Bali, University of California, Los Angeles (CA)

Individual Presentations

• Law as a Battleground: Fighting over the Legality of Targeted Killing - Lisa Hajjar, University of California, Santa Barbara (CA)

• Constructing the Prototypical Terrorist in the US - Noura Erakat, George Mason University (VA)

• The Human Right To Kill - Neve Gordon, Ben Gurion University (Israel)