A War Like No Other: The Constitution In A Time Of Terror

“A scholarly and cautionary collection of essays focusing on what [Fiss] views as the post-9/11 debasements of key provisions of the Constitution” (Kirkus Reviews).

A leading legal scholar for more than thirty years, Owen Fiss’s focus was civil procedure and equal protection. But when the War on Terror began to shroud legal proceedings in secrecy, he realized the bulwarks of procedure that shield the individual from the awesome power of the state were dissolving, perhaps irreparably, and that it was time for him to speak up.

The ten chapters in this volume cover the major legal battlefronts of the War on Terror from Guantánamo to drones, with a focus on the constitutional implications of those new tools. The underlying theme is Fiss’s concern for the offense done to the US Constitution by the administrative and legislative branches of government in the name of public safety and the refusal of the judiciary to hold the government accountable. A War Like No Other is an essential intellectual foundation for all concerned about constitutional rights and the law in a new age.

“Fiss is one of our most clear-eyed and hard-edged constitutional analysts, and this critique of the damage done to our constitutional heritage in the name of waging a war on terror is the most devastating I have seen.” —Stanley N. Katz, director of the Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies

“An essential contribution from one of the country’s foremost legal scholars.” —Jonathan Hafetz, former senior attorney for the National Security project of the ACLU

“Thought-provoking.” —Publishers Weekly