The Worst-case Scenario and the Man on the Clapham Omnibus

  The worst-case scenario is related more to the principle of precaution than with risk calculation. In environmental studies, however, the principle of precaution is framed through mathematic models assessing transformations of nature and the capacity of traceability and with the profiling of things that are happening. In the debate on security and terrorism, the assessment is based on supposition about the will and nature of the enemy, its size, scope, purpose in the future, etc. It depends on the ‘prophecy’ of the white notes of intelligence services. See the contribution by Bernard Harcourt in this volume.

¹³  Girard, R and Williams, JG, The Girard Reader (New York, Crossroad, 1996).

¹⁴  Roth, K, ‘Justifying Torture’ in K Roth, M Worden and A Bernstein (eds), Torture: A Human Rights Perspective (New York, The New Press, 2005) xxi.

¹⁵  ‘We cannot struggle against terrorists with a hand tied up behind the back, we need to regain our freedom [sic]’ (French anti-terrorist magistrate Jean Louis Bruguière).

¹⁶  Eberwein, WD, ‘Le Paradoxe Humanitaire? Normes et Pratiques’ (2006 Cultures et Conflits 60.

¹⁷  Bourdieu, P, Practical Reason: On the Theory of Action (Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1998); Bourdieu, P, Propos Sur Le Champ Politique (Lyon, Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 2000).

¹⁸  Buzan, B, People, States and Fear: An Agenda for International Security in the Post-Cold War Era, 2nd edn (New York, Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991).

¹⁹  Bigo (2005b).

²⁰  Ignatieff (2005). Cf Roth (2005).

²¹  Dillon, M, ‘Network Society, Network-centric Warfare and the State of Emergency’ (2002) 19(4) Theory, Culture and Society 71; Bonditti, P, ‘From Territorial Space to Networks: A Foucaultian Approach to the Implementation of Biopolitics’ (2004) 29(4) Alternatives 465–82.

²²  Cole, D and Dempsey, JX, Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security (New York, The New Press, 2002) 231; Cole, D, Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism (New York, The New Press, 2003); Butler, J, ‘Explanation and Exoneration, or What We can Hear’ (2002) 20(3) Social Text 177–88; Jabri, V, ‘Critical Thought and Political Agency in Time of War’ (2005) 19(1) International Relations 70–9.

²³  Boyle, K, Hadden, T and Hillyard, P, Law and State: The Case of Northern Ireland, Law in Society Series (London, Robertson, 1975) ix, 194; Campagna, N, ‘Prerogative and Constitutional State: The Problem of State of Emergency Force in John Locke and Benjamin Constant’ (2001) 40(4) Der Staat 553–79; Verdeja, E, ‘Law, Terrorism, and the Plenary Power Doctrine: Limiting Alien Rights’ (2002) 9(1) Constellations 89–97; Ferejohn, J and Pasquino, P, ‘The Law of the Exception: A Typology of Emergency Powers’ (2004) 2(2) International Journal of Constitutional Law 210–39; Walker, RJB, ‘War, Terror and Judgement’ in B Gökay and RJB Walker (eds), 11 September 2001: War, Terror and Judgement