Book 42

Faces of State Terrorism

by Laura Westra

Published 16 May 2012
This book examines the numerous illegal measures states use, from unlawful imprisonment and curtailing of civil liberties to torture, in the name of responding to terrorism. At the same time, it considers how trade and industrial activities terrorize people by depriving them of the natural resources they need to survive and by exposing communities to life-threatening hazardous conditions.

Book 53

The Supranational Corporation

by Laura Westra

Published 1 January 2013
The growth of corporate power has kept pace with and even exceeded the rapid rise of globalization in the past two decades. With it has come the weakening of a nation's ability to hold corporate power in check, and the increasing inability of states to protect the rights of individuals within their national boundaries as a result of the growing number of international legal instruments.

This work lays bare corporate actions both domestic and international, under the guise of legal "personhood," and shows how corporations flaunt laws and act as controlling powers beyond the constraints imposed on legal state citizens. Corporations are now "embedded" within domestic legal regimes and insinuate themselves to subvert the very systems designed to restrain corporate power and protect the public weal. Using international vehicles like the WTO and NAFTA, corporate collective power effectively supersedes the constitutional mandate of nation states.

Book 65

Revolt Against Authority

by Laura Westra

Published 1 January 2014
Democratic countries are increasingly controlled by economic interests rather than by the rule of law. Charting the protesters and social movements "illegality" opposing authority this volume argues that they should be, nevertheless, considered the defenders of law and order. It is these social forces that represent the legitimate self-defense against corporate breaches of human rights condoned by their governments.

In The Supranatural Corporation, Laura Westra lays bare corporate actions both domestic and international - under the guise of legal 'personhood' - and shows how corporations flaunt laws and act as controlling powers beyond the constraints imposed on legal state citizens. Corporations are now embedded within domestic legal regimes and insinuate themselves to subvert the very systems designed to restrain corporate power and protect the public.