Immagine dell'autore.
12 opere 56 membri 2 recensioni

Sull'Autore

Amos N. Guiora is Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, USA.

Comprende il nome: Amos Guiora

Opere di Amos N. Guiora

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Sesso
male
Luogo di nascita
Israel
Istruzione
Kenyon College (BA, 1979)

Utenti

Recensioni

This was frustrating to read. I am intrigued by the example of the bystander in the Holocaust: how does the bystander (who is not directly victimized) act morally in opposition to the immoral acts of the state? This question is difficult and relevant, and the answer necessarily exists outside the legal system of that state.

However, that question is not addressed in this book. Somehow, this author reflects on the Holocaust and concludes that there is a legal solution to the bystander problem: the bystander must call the police! (This thesis makes his extremely justified criticism of the Holocaust bystanders sound more and more ridiculous. Don't be a bystander! Call the...SS? I'm mad at this book for making a criticism of bystanders in the Holocaust sound ridiculous.) There is no reflection on the limitations of the criminal justice system, on the findings of books like "The New Jim Crow" and the effects of increased criminalization, like the War on Drugs, on marginalized communities. There is no evidence presented that imposing criminal liability for bystanders who fail to contact the police will prevent violent crimes or necessarily help the victims.

The only effects of the proposed legislation that seem certain to me are (1) that our high incarceration rate would increase and (2) that ordinary citizens and residents would feel pressure to err on the side of initiating police involvement. Which sounds more like the next generation of German history.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
jostie13 | May 14, 2020 |
The author takes an unusual, and daring, premise as the basis for his book. Freedom of religion should be limited to reduce the threat of religious extremism. We should stop making excuses for religious violence, and start prosecuting perpetrators. We should stop trying to dismiss the role of religion in religious violence. Overall, a decent book, but a little light on the side of evidence, and way too much of "private e-mail with author; name in my records". I understand the need for that, but it should be used very sparingly, and in this case, it was more the norm than the exception. Probably because a lot of these people were likely politically connected individuals, but in some cases, that might make going on the record even more important. Another problem with the book is that this is an issue that leads to a huge level of ambiguity - where do you draw the line? how do you determine what is dangerous? who determines it? - and the author briefly acknowledges the difficulties with this argument, but tends to blow past them. He also exempts all moderate religion from any problem, never addressing the role that moderate religion might play in putting a good face on religion as a whole, and states that moderate religion represents what is good about our society, without doing anything to elaborate on that. It's a pregnant statement, but like in so much of what passes for discussion in the modern world, is just hanging out there without any support or substance. It's just stated as something everyone understands, thereby relegating all of us who question that contention to the role of being so unimportant that we don't merit consideration. He'll just stick that in there, and if we don't agree, we're wrong, without giving any reason why we should agree (yes, I realize there are plenty of sources that do discuss this, but this book was small enough and easy enough to read that he could have devoted a page to support of what was a really major premise in his book, in case there were people reading it who didn't have the slightest clue about how he was determining the difference. Does religion that only manages to enlist government to keep people who aren't members from having sex and obtaining contraception qualify as non-extremist? This book would lead one to conclude probably yes, in his book. This begs for clarification). Overall, a good start, but not much more.… (altro)
 
Segnalato
Devil_llama | Dec 12, 2012 |

Statistiche

Opere
12
Utenti
56
Popolarità
#291,557
Voto
½ 2.5
Recensioni
2
ISBN
43

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