Contingencies, Resilience and Legal Constitutionalism

by Clive Walker (Editor)

Overview

Contingency planning and resilience are of prime importance to the late modern risk society, with implications for law and for governance arrangements. Our risk society continues to seek ever more complex and detailed risk mitigation responses by law, including the UK’s Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and the US Homeland Security Act 2002, which respond to counter-terrorism, natural catastrophes, and other risks.

This book seeks to analyse and criticise the legal developments in contingencies and resilience on a comparative basis, which engages with not only law and constitutionalism but also political theory and policy, including relations between public and private, national and local, and civil and military. Two transcending themes are of interest. One is institutional or structural – what bodies and power relations should we establish in a late modern world where Critical National Infrastructure is mainly held in private hands? The second is dynamic and concerns the grant of powers and arrangements for live responses. Both aspects are subjected to a strong critical stance based in 'constitutionalism', which demands state legitimacy even in extreme situations by the observance of legality, effectiveness, accountability, and individual rights. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Human Rights.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138890428
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/08/2015
Pages:	162
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Clive Walker is Professor of Criminal Justice Studies in the School of Law at the University of Leeds, UK. He has written extensively on terrorism and emergencies. In 2003, he was a special adviser to the UK Parliamentary select committee on the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and subsequently published a book on that legislation.

Table of Contents

1. Legal perspectives on contingencies and resilience in an environment of constitutionalism - An overview 2. Lone wolf terrorism in Norway 3. Managing ‘civil contingencies’ in Australia 4. The power to react: review and discussion of Canada’s emergency measures legislation 5. ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’: informing the public under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 6. Emergency powers and the withering of the Royal Prerogative 7. The governance of emergency arrangements 8. Terrorism and counterterrorism in the US: the question of responsible policy-making 9. Homeland security: definitions and accountability