ABSTRACT
This introduction provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book introduces law students, university academics and organic intellectuals to political theorist Hannah Arendt's book on the Eichmann trial and, through that book, to her broader oeuvre. More than a half-century after its publication, Arendt's Eichmann book still manages to get under people's skin. Like other historical controversies, the conflict over Eichmann in Jerusalem reveals as much about our current political moment as it does about either Arendt or Eichmann. The book highlights the way Arendt's argument in Eichmann threatens attempts to position the Holocaust as a touchstone upon which political life is constructed. Arendt has endured decades of criticism and slander for demystifying evil and giving it a human face. Major theoretical themes examined include the nature of legal authority and civil disobedience, justice, criminal procedure, the validity of retroactive law, the act of judgment and the nexus between morality and law.
