Sovereign Contradictions: Maher Arar and the Indefinite Future

Abstract

In the past decade air travel has become more and more widely accessible. This is the result, at least in part, of two related developments. The first is the reorganization of major air carriers into “hubs and spokes,” and the second is the emergence of point-to-point low cost airlines making use of the space at small airports that major carriers no longer have any interest in exploiting—if they ever did. The combined result of these developments has been a dramatic increase in air travel as costs have fallen in both sectors of the market. As a result of this transformation it is likely that most of you reading this chapter have experienced a spoke and hub flight, being flown from wherever you begin to one of the increasingly immense airports that then serve other hubs around the world. If you are reading this in Europe, you have likely passed in this way through London, Amsterdam, or Frankfurt; in Asia through Singapore or Hong Kong. If you are based in North America, it is likely you have passed through one or more of the large U.S. airports, Los Angeles to fly over the Pacific, JFK in New York for transatlantic travel.