Arbitrary arrest and detention have been the most consistent violations of fundamental individual human rights throughout history. The world's major criminal justice systems reveal the historical struggle between monarchs and dictators on the one hand, and advocates of the supremacy of the rule of law on the other. This struggle has been over the power to arbitrarily arrest and detain persons whether they be accused of common or polical crimes. Preventive Detention: A Comparative and International Law Perspective seeks to reconcile theory and practice by selecting studies representing different legal systems, thus advancing the multi-disciplinary understanding of the application of international and regional human rights norms in criminal justice systems.