Law Is No Match for Power

Professor of law at the University of Chicago, Eric Posner takes a strongly realist view of the relationship between law and power. Power, he says, rather than justice, always determines the direction and extent of the law: “The use of law depends on power, and is enforced by those who have it against those who do not. Failure to understand this fact will lead the United States down a foolhardy path, wasting resources on unneeded JAGs and tying the military’s hands. The irony is that the hardheaded officials who run the national-security apparatus fear chimeras conjured up by the dreamiest internationalists.”