Elisa Orrù

This book is based on the premise that the trade-off between privacy and security is both unsound and con-ceals important aspects of surveillance and control. Accordingly, the authors analyse the symbiotic relati-onship between liberty and security, and the emptiness of both concepts when considered in isolation. They explore and contextualise different notions of risk, surveillance practices and the value of the rights to pri-vate life and data protection. Thereby, they show that surveillance and control neither necessarily attain security, nor always pose a threat to privacy and, conversely, that protecting privacy does not necessarily hamper security provision. Moreover, they argue that surveillance and control, mediated through technolo-gy, express and sustain specific power relationships. The book offers a kaleidoscope of perspectives, ranging from critical studies to international relations, law, philosophy and sociology, to rethink surveillance and control.

l volume di Gustavo Gozzi "Diritti e civiltà. Storia e filosofia del diritto internazionale (Bologna, il Mulino, 2010) ha a nostro avviso colmato una lacuna importante nel panorama filosofico-giuridico italiano. Si tratta infatti della prima pubblicazione in lingua italiana che, da un punto di vista insieme storico e filosofico, affronta in modo sistematico lo sviluppo del diritto internazionale dall’età moderna ai giorni nostri. Questo primato è già un eccellente motivo per discutere Diritti e civiltà. Ma c’è di più. Una parte consistente del saggio è dedicata alla ricostruzione e discussione di contributi non-occidentali al dibattito contemporaneo sulla natura e il ruolo del diritto internazionale. Si può anzi dire che Gozzi fa proprio il punto di vista di questi autori: il volume si distingue infatti per un approccio critico nei confronti della pretesa universalità delle dottrine occidentali del diritto internazionale. Questo scetticismo si fonda sulla tesi fondamentale del volume, secondo la quale il diritto internazionale è caratterizzato dalla “continuità del discorso dell’egemonia occidentale dalla prima età moderna fino alla realtà contemporanea” (p. 11). Prendendo avvio dall’approccio sistematico e insieme critico del volume e dai temi in esso trattati, questo forum intende (ri)discutere temi chiave della storia e filosofia del diritto internazionale e metterne a fuoco un programma di ricerca.

This book is based on the premise that the trade-off between privacy and security is both unsound and conceals important aspects of surveillance and control. Accordingly, the authors analyse the symbiotic relationship between liberty and security, and the emptiness of both concepts when considered in isolation. They explore and contextualise different notions of risk, surveillance practices and the value of the rights to private life and data protection. Thereby, they show that surveillance and control neither necessarily attain security, nor always pose a threat to privacy and, conversely, that protecting privacy does not necessarily hamper security provision. Moreover, they appreciate how surveillance and control, mediated through technology, express and sustain specific power relationships. The book thus offers a kaleidoscope of perspectives, ranging from critical studies to international relations, law, philosophy and sociology, to rethink surveillance and control.

This book examines the current dynamic and momentous development of European security policy. In doing so, it provides an important and original contribution to both practical philosophy and to the fields of security studies and European studies. Using concrete analyses and by offering possible solutions to certain problems, the book develops an approach that is embedded in reality and which, at the same time, insists on theory and normativity. It focuses on the characteristics of new security technologies and ways in which security is understood as well as their influence on the ‘Copernican Revolution’ of the modern age, through which individuals and the protection of their fundamental rights have become the focus of political legitimation.