“The Rule of Law has long been cherished in the U.S. 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 colonialist interventions in Africa and Latin America, 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 the Rule of Law in the United States. This thought-provoking text is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary law, politics, and social justice.”
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.
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 colonialist interventions in Africa and Latin America, 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 the Rule of Law in the United States. This thought-provoking text is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary law, politics, and social justice.”