Book review: liberty and security

Drawing on scholarship in law, human rights and political science, this book considers how proclamations of universal liberty and security are mocked by the vast inequalities in supposedly free societies, the authoritarian regimes with regular elections, and the terrible socio–economic deprivation camouflaged by cynically proclaimed commitments to human rights. Conor Gearty′s book seeks to offer an explanation of how this has come about, providing also a criticism of the present age which tolerates it. This brilliantly conceived book enables readers to interrogate afresh the promise of democracy in delivering the potentiality of the universal as a regulative ideal, writes Vivienne Jabri.