The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice by Douglas, Lawrence

The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780691180410)

Vendor: Lawrence Douglas
Product type: Books
Format: Hardcover
$35.00
$35.00
$35.00
Subtotal: $35.00
The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice by Douglas, Lawrence

The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice

$35.00
The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice by Douglas, Lawrence

The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice

$35.00
Format: Hardcover
Description
Description
x

A sweeping history of the struggle to hold states to account for their gravest crimes

The Criminal State offers a gripping account of how law has confronted the most radical forms of state violence. Beautifully written, broad in scope, and bracingly original, it weaves history with political thought to trace the shifting legal response to state aggression and atrocities, from Leopold's rule over the Congo to Putin's war in Ukraine.

At its heart is Lawrence Douglas's fresh interpretation of the law's reckoning with Nazi aggression and atrocity. He shows how the Nuremberg trials challenged centuries of thought--rooted in Hobbes and other canonical thinkers--that shielded sovereigns from legal scrutiny. Yet Nuremberg's bid to frame aggression as the cornerstone of a new order of international criminal law largely failed, giving way to a system now centrally concerned with crimes against humanity and genocide--while leaving unresolved the legality and effectiveness of using force to stop the worst violations of human rights.

Providing rare historical perspective on the dilemmas facing international courts, The Criminal State is a sweeping, provocative history of the struggle to bring perpetrators of state violence to justice.

Author: Lawrence Douglas
ISBN-10: 0691180415
ISBN-13: 9780691180410
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/28/2026
Pages: 456
Format: Hardcover
By Lawrence Douglas
By Lawrence Douglas
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Lawrence Douglas is the James J. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought at Amherst College. His many books include The Right Wrong Man (Princeton) and The Memory of Judgment. His writing has appeared in leading publications such as Harper's, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. He is a regular contributor to The Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian.

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