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Law and Catastrophe

Online ISBN:
9780804768344
Print ISBN:
9780804756839
Publisher:
Stanford University Press
Book

Law and Catastrophe

Austin Sarat (ed.),
Austin Sarat
(ed.)
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Lawrence Douglas (ed.),
Lawrence Douglas
(ed.)
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Martha Merrill Umphrey (ed.)
Martha Merrill Umphrey
(ed.)
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Published online:
20 June 2013
Published in print:
18 June 2007
Online ISBN:
9780804768344
Print ISBN:
9780804756839
Publisher:
Stanford University Press

Abstract

The study of catastrophe is a growth industry. Today, cosmologists scan the heavens for asteroids of the kind that smashed into earth some ninety million years ago, leading to the swift extinction of the dinosaurs. Climatologists create elaborate models of the chaotic weather and vast flooding that will result from the continued buildup of greenhouse gases in the planet's atmosphere. Terrorist experts and homeland security consultants struggle to prepare for a wide range of possible biological, chemical, and radiological attacks: aerated small pox virus spread by a crop duster, botulism dumped into an urban reservoir, a dirty bomb detonated in a city center. Yet, strangely, law's role in the definition, identification, prevention, and amelioration of catastrophe has been largely neglected. The relationship between law and other limiting conditions—such as states of emergency—has been the subject of rich and growing literature. By contrast, little has been written about law and catastrophe. In devoting a volume to the subject, the chapters sketch the contours of a relatively fresh terrain of inquiry. This book begins the work of developing a jurisprudence of catastrophe.

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