ASBOs as assurance in the post-liberal era

Abstract

The conclusion of this study of new laws in the UK ends with a note that ‘Without popular authority, the state will continue to blunder along in its futile, repressive and demoralising pursuit of absolute safety’ (p. 241). This closing line not only informs us of the author's critical approach to many of the new laws in Britain, but more importantly gives a strong indication of the breadth of the book and its attempt to situate the rise of the Insecurity State in the changing political and cultural climate – one that in particular has become essentially preoccupied with ensuring our safety, or as Ramsay would perhaps put it, defending our vulnerable autonomy. As such, this is not just an exceptionally useful and well-informed book about the changing nature of law in the UK, but it is more importantly an attempt to situate these developments in the changing nature of the state – indeed in the changing nature and norms of society, a society within which the ‘right to security’ has come to take precedence.