From martial law to the war on terror

Abstract

This article explores the transformation of martial law into emergency powers. In so doing it presents an argument about the liberalization of martial law and the constitutionalization of emergency powers. In showing the ways in which the powers of martial rule have become normalized within liberal democracies the article points to an ideological circuit between emergency powers and the logic of security, a circuit most apparent in the current "war on terror." © 2007 by the Regents of the University of California.