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Informationen zum Autor Ugo Mattei is Distinguished Professor of International and Comparative Law at University of California, Hastings and at the University of Turin, Italy. He is a widely published scholar in economic and political aspects of law and his work has been translated into many languages. His professional activities have included substantive periods of teaching and research in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Laura Nader is Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Berkeley and is possibly the leading world authority in Anthropology of Law. She has conducted fieldwork in Lebanon, Mexico, and the US and her groundbreaking work on harmony ideology and access to law and her unmatchable publication list make Nader one of the most interesting voices in the current academic scene. Klappentext The Rule of Law has long been cherished in the US as the ultimate defender of civil liberty and the American way of life - a Rule of Law which no one can quite define, but everyone supports. In this provocative new book, Ugo Mattei and Laura Nader wage a frontal assault on this treasured belief in the sanctity of the Rule of Law, unflinchingly exploring its previously neglected dark side. They expose its intimate relationship with plunder - the practice of violent extraction by stronger political actors victimizing weaker ones - in the service of Western cultural and economic domination.Boldly conceived and vibrantly written, Plunder dares to ask the paradoxical question - is the Rule of Law itself illegal? Mattei and Nader expose global examples of plunder: of Native American lands, to the plunder of oil in Iraq; of ideas in the form of Western patents and intellectual property rights imposed on weaker peoples; and of liberty and the demise of Rule of Law in the United States. This thought-provoking text is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary law, politics, and social justice. Zusammenfassung Plunder examines the dark side of the Rule of Law and explores how it has been used as a powerful political weapon by Western countries in order to legitimize plunder - the practice of violent extraction by stronger political actors victimizing weaker ones. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface. Introduction. 1. Plunder and The Rule of Law . An Anatomy of Plunder. Plunder, Hegemony, and Positional Superiority. Law, Plunder, and European Expansionism. Institutionalizing Plunder: The Colonial Relationship and the Imperial Project. A Story of Continuity: Constructing the Empire of Law (lessness). 2. Neo-liberalism: Economic Engine of Plunder. The Argentinean Bonanza. Neo-Liberalism: An Economic Theory of Simplification and a Spectacular Project. Structural Adjustment Programs and the Comprehensive Development Framework. Development Frameworks, Plunder, and the Rule of Law. 3. Before Neo-Liberalism: a Story of Western Plunder . The European Roots of Colonial Plunder. The Fundamental Structure of US Law as a Post-Colonial Reception. A Theory of Lack, Yesterday and Today. Before Neo-Liberalism: Colonial Practices and Harmonious Strategies-Yesterday and Now. 4. Plunder of Ideas and the Providers of Legitimacy . Hegemony and legal Consciousness. Intellectual Property as Plunder of Ideas. Providing Legitimacy: Law and Economics. Providing Legitimacy: Lawyers and Anthropologists. 5. Constructing the Conditions for Plunder . Plunder of Oil: Iraq and Elsewhere. The New World Order of Plunder. Not Only Iraq: Plunder, War, and Legal Ideologies of Intervention. Institutional Lacks as Conditions for Plunder: Real or Created?. Double Standards Policy and Plunder. Poverty: Justification for Intervention and Consequence of Plunder. 6...
