Law and Catastrophe

Our definitions of catastrophe have changed but our legal systems have not, despite extensive scholarship on the causes and effects of catastrophic events, including those caused by civil war and terrorism. This collection of essays addresses the role of the law in defining, identifying, preventing and ameliorating catastrophe. With the intention of developing a jurisprudence of catastrophe fully in mind, contributors examine the theoretical difficulties inherent in integrating studies of catastrophe and the law, aspects of humanitarian corporate responsibility within the development and application of law, the particulars of political catastrophe and lessons learned from nineteenth-century France, and two articles on the workings of memory in catastrophe and its effect on law, including a moving account of Rebecca West's Nuremberg and another that examines the ways governments manipulate national memory. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)