Terror, reason and rights

Summary

The history of emergency legislation is not a proud one. From the appointment of dictators rei gerundae causa in the days of the Roman Republic to the invocation of Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution following the Reichstag Fire, measures seemingly meant to preserve constitutional government have too often proved to be its undoing. Good-faith attempts to deal with emergencies have not always fared any better. In 1987, for example, Supreme Court Justice Brennan remarked on the ‘shabby treatment’ of civil liberties in the US during ‘times of war and perceived threats to national security’, including Lincoln’s attempt to suspend habeas corpus during the Civil War and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War

Keywords

Security Terrorism Human Rights

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