Online Symposium: Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule’s “Terror in the Balance”

Opinio Juris is very pleased to host for the next few days an online symposium on Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule’s new book, Terror in the Balance recently published by Oxford University Press.

The format for this symposium will be familiar to those who followed the symposium we held three weeks ago on Michael Ramsey’s book, The Constitution’s Text in Foreign Affairs. We will begin with a few posts introducing the broad outlines of the book. We will then have comments from experts who will address various aspects of the book. Professors Posner and Vermeule will then respond to any of the posts as they deem appropriate. Because the book is clearly divided into two parts—the first offering broad theories of the security-liberty tradeoff and the second applying the tradeoff theory to specific contexts—we likewise will divide our discussion in a similar fashion. We will start with the theoretical arguments the first day or so and then focus on specific applications—such as torture, speech, due process, and military detention in subsequent days. We will then provide some concluding thoughts near the end of the week and offer Posner and Vermeule the final word.

In addition to Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule, our other guest participants in this symposium include two national security experts: Louis Fisher of the Library of Congress and Professor Bobby Chesney of Wake Forest University School of Law. Of course, the permanent contributors to Opinio Juris will also add their reflections on the book.

We look forward to an exciting symposium and warmly welcome Eric Posner, Adrian Vermeule, Lou Fisher and Bobby Chesney to Opinio Juris.