On March 31, the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University presents Plunder, the new book by two leading international voices on the social, political, and economic aspects of the law, Ugo Mattei and Laura Nader. The book 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. This wide-ranging volume…
-challenges traditionally held beliefs in the sanctity of the Rule of Law
-examines the Rule of Law’s relationship with “plunder” in the service of Western cultural and economic domination
-draws on comparative and historical data to provide global examples of plunder, and
-brings the extensive legal advocacy and views of social justice of the authors to bear on the question: When is the Rule of
Law illegal?
Ugo Mattei is the 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 the University of California, Berkeley and is a world authority in the 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.