What We Can Learn From the French About Terrorism

Huffington Post (January 9, 2015)

What We Can Learn From the French About Terrorism

By Bruce Ackerman

 

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-ackerman/what-we-can-learn-from-th_10_b_6442488.html

Assume the worst: the attack on Charlie Hebdo is the opening gun in an escalating terrorist campaign. In the coming days, another band of extremists succeeds at a second-strike, escalating the prevailing anxiety to new heights. Confronting the emphatic demand that the President "do something" to regain control of the situation, Hollande considers his next step. Here is where the French Constitution comes in. It authorizes the President to exercise extraordinary powers whenever the Republic's institutions are under "grave and immediate threat." Once he invokes this authority, he can, for example, order sweeping preventive detention measures that would not be tolerated under ordinary conditions. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-ackerman/what-we-can-learn-from-th_10_b_6442488.html