In the News: Reflections on Violence, Law, and Humanitarianism

Talal Asad, writing in Critical Inquiry, raises complicated questions about humanity, morality, Enlightenment, law and politics. He asks, in part, “What gives the modern project called ‘humanitarianism’ its moral impetus? What accounts for the modern expressions of horror at crimes against humanity—distinct, that is, from the crime of murder?”