Guantanamo Forever: United States Sovereignty and the Unending State of Exception

Abstract:     
This book review essay considers the Guantanamo Bay detention facility both before and after it became the focus of international attention. Brandt Goldstein's 'Storming the Court: How a Band of Yale Law Students Sued the President - and Won' is a vivid account of the experience of Haitian refugees who were detained at Guantanamo in 1991. The review maintains that Guantanamo was then and continues to be a no-man's land, where individuals are detained by US force and yet not protected by US laws. The essay suggests that Guantanamo is in danger of becoming a site of unending exception, where sovereign power is allowed to determine indefinitely not only the law, but what lies outside the law.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 8

Keywords: Guantanamo, terrorism, unlawful combatant, sovereignty, Carl Schmitt, Giorgio Agamben, torture

Accepted Paper Series