A License to Kill


Book Description

Alive.




Justified Killing


Book Description

The right of self-defense is seemingly at odds with the general presupposition that killing is wrong; numerous theories have been put forth over the years that attempt to explain how self-defense is consistent with such a presupposition. In Justified Killing: The Paradox of Self-Defense, Whitley Kaufman argues that none of the leading theories adequately explains why it is permissible even to kill an innocent attacker in self-defense, given the basic moral prohibition against killing the innocent. Kaufman suggests that such an explanation can be found in the traditional Doctrine of Double Effect, according to which self-defense is justified because the intention of the defender is to protect himself rather than harm the attacker. Given this morally legitimate intention, self-defense is permissible against both culpable and innocent aggressors, so long as the force used is both necessary and proportionate. Justified Killing will intrigue in particular those scholars interested in moral and legal philosophy.




Justified License to Kill


Book Description

This is the true-life, roller coaster-ride story of a multi-talented, Earth-toned American singer, musician, and comedian, born and raised in Portland, Oregon, who survived a bullish upbringing that left him with a sense of unworthiness and not belonging, which metastasized into a wall of hopeless resentment and led to a rebellious, systemic journey of grapefruit-sour relationships, including a bogus military-based marriage, followed by a dysfunctional relationship in college, which led to a disastrous internship with the Portland Fire Department. He recognized early on his susceptibility to alcohol, and fell in love with a succession of women well-versed in the art of manipulation, relationships he respectfully describes as strange grapefruits. Having become involved in a biracial romantic entanglement, he relocated to the City of Seaside on the Pacific Northwest Oregon coast, working his way up to the position of supervisor of that city's most popular beachfront hotel. However, he bites off more than he can chew as he is a convenient and continuous target, of police brutality, and endemic, rural-region bullying racism for eleven consecutive months. While attending the post-nuptial reception of a friend, he and the newlywed bride find themselves cornered by an invading gang of racist bikers with murder on their minds, which turns into an all-out melee in the host's kitchen. After forcefully subduing the leader of the pack, he is elevated to instantaneous-hero status by the Seaside Police Department, who do a one-hundred-eighty degree turnabout regarding their treatment of a civilian they now hold in high regard. Despite this newly developed dEtente with the town heat, our plucky protagonist is still faced with another two-and-a-half years of constant death threats from the remainder of the notorious biker gang out of Portland, Oregon, who try to exact their racist revenge when they corner our hero once again. He escapes their clutches through a strange twist of fate, is arrested, charged with another infraction, goes to trial, and is found not guilty, twice, for acting in self-defense; Double jeopardy in a court of law, due to racism in the State of Oregon = Justified License To Kill in the eyes of the law.




Targeted Killings


Book Description

The war on terror is remaking conventional warfare. The protracted battle against a non-state organization, the demise of the confinement of hostilities to an identifiable battlefield, the extensive involvement of civilian combatants, and the development of new and more precise military technologies have all conspired to require a rethinking of the law and morality of war. Just war theory, as traditionally articulated, seems ill-suited to justify many of the practices of the war on terror. The raid against Osama Bin Laden's Pakistani compound was the highest profile example of this strategy, but the issues raised by this technique cast a far broader net: every week the U.S. military and CIA launch remotely piloted drones to track suspected terrorists in hopes of launching a missile strike against them. In addition to the public condemnation that these attacks have generated in some countries, the legal and moral basis for the use of this technique is problematic. Is the U.S. government correct that nations attacked by terrorists have the right to respond in self-defense by targeting specific terrorists for summary killing? Is there a limit to who can legitimately be placed on the list? There is also widespread disagreement about whether suspected terrorists should be considered combatants subject to the risk of lawful killing under the laws of war or civilians protected by international humanitarian law. Complicating the moral and legal calculus is the fact that innocent bystanders are often killed or injured in these attacks. This book addresses these issues. Featuring chapters by an unrivalled set of experts, it discusses all aspects of targeted killing, making it unmissable reading for anyone interested in the implications of this practice.




More Than Victims


Book Description

Donald Downs offers an analysis of the injustices behind the logic of battered woman syndrome, concluding that this very logic harms those it is trying to protect. This work seeks to rethink the criminal justice system.




Introduction to Policing


Book Description

Written and extensively updated by an author team that includes former and current law enforcement officers, Introduction to Policing focuses on the thought-provoking, contemporary issues that underscore the challenging and rewarding world of policing. The authors skillfully balance research and practice to offer students an overview of both the foundations of policing and the expanded role of today’s police officers. Evolving with the modern realities of the field, the Fourth Edition discusses major new and ongoing impactful events, such as the political shift marked by the U.S. presidential election of 2016 and expanded coverage of women and minorities in policing. The accessible and engaging writing style, coupled with unique coverage of the issues of policing in multicultural communities, the impact of technology on policing, and policing strategies and procedures, make this bestselling book a must-have for policing courses. This title is accompanied by a complete teaching and learning package.




The Quest for Core Values in the Application of Legal Norms


Book Description

Relations between societal values and legal doctrine are inevitably complex given the time lag between law and social reality, and the sociological space between legal communities involved in the development and application of the law and non-legal communities affected by it. It falls on open-ended concepts, such as proportionality, human rights, dignity, freedom, and truth, and on legal frameworks for balancing competing rights and interests, such as self-defense, command or corporate responsibility, and restrictions on freedom of expression, to negotiate chronic tensions between law and society and to bridge existing gaps. The present volume contains chapters by leading experts – former judges on constitutional courts and international courts, and some of the world’s leading criminal law, public law, and international law scholars – offering their points of view and professional analysis of legal notions and doctrines that serve as hubs for the interpretation, application, and contestation of core values, which in turn constitute building blocks of the rule of law. The shared perspective on the interplay between values and legal rules in public law, criminal law, and international law is likely to render the publication a valuable resource for both theoreticians and practitioners, law students, and seasoned legal experts working in diverse legal fields.




Victims' Rights and Victims' Wrongs


Book Description

"Don't blame the victim" is a cornerstone maxim of Anglo-American jurisprudence, but should the law generally ignore a victim's behavior in determining a defendant's liability? Victims' Rights and Victims' Wrongs criticizes the current criminal law approach and outlines a more fair, coherent, and efficient set of rules to recognize that victims sometimes co-author their own losses or injuries. Evaluating a number of controversial cases involving euthanasia, sadomasochism, date rape, battered wives, and "innocent" aggressors, Vera Bergelson builds a theoretical foundation for reform. Her approach to comparative criminal liability takes into account the actions of both the perpetrator and the victim and offers a unitary explanation for consent, self-defense, and provocation. This innovative book supplies a practical and coherent mechanism for evaluating the impact of a victim's conduct on a perpetrator's liability in a variety of circumstances, including those that are now artificially excluded from comparative analysis.




A Theory of Epistemic Justification


Book Description

One goal of epistemology is to refute the skeptic. Another, with an equally dist- guished if briefer pedigree, is to make sense of science as a knowledge-acquiring enterprise. The goals are incompatible, in that the latter presupposes that the skeptic is wrong. The incompatibility is not strict. One could have both goals, conditi- ing the latter upon success at the former. In fact, however, epistemologies aimed at the skeptic tend not to get anywhere near science. They’ve got all they can handle guring out how we can know we have hands. I come to epistemology from the philosophy of science, my original interest in which was epistemological. Philosophers of science are concerned with epistemic justi cation, but their question about it is how far it extends. They take justi cation to be unproblematic at the level of ordinary experience; their worries begin with the interpretation of experience as evidence for theory. They are interested in the scope of scienti c knowledge. Having taken a position on this question (1997), - guing that justi cation extends to theoretical hypotheses, I came to wonder about the nature of justi cation generally. This is not a belated discovery of the skeptical problem or a reconsideration of what I took to be unproblematic. It is simply an interest in the possibility of locating epistemic advance in science within a broader understanding of the nature of epistemic justi cation. Now that I know that just- cation extends to theory, I am taking a step back and asking what justi cation is.




Targeting Terrorists


Book Description

Targeting Terrorists: A License to Kill? examines the political history and ethics of targeted killing. Avery Plaw's analysis addresses the questions of moral, political and legal justification in the context of the current 'war on terror' and of legitimate/illegitimate forms of counter-terrorism more generally. Given the increasing number of terrorist targetings conducted around the world today and the virtual absence of a sustained public and scholarly debate over the practice, this study makes a crucial contribution to the examination of an increasingly important and troubling subject. Incorporating insights and arguments from a range of disciplines and approaches, and offering an excellent balance between theory and case studies, this book is highly relevant for courses on ethics, politics, international relations and international law.