Scott A. Anderson and Martha C. Nussbaum (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226529387
- eISBN:
- 9780226529554
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226529554.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This book gathers fourteen essays on torture, addressing its complexities from the perspectives of psychology, history, philosophy, law, and cultural commentary. It appears in the wake of the ...
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This book gathers fourteen essays on torture, addressing its complexities from the perspectives of psychology, history, philosophy, law, and cultural commentary. It appears in the wake of the American “War on Terror,” and the apparent evaporation of a broad consensus in international law, the U.S. legal community, and public thinking that torture is never an acceptable act, even in war. The chapters of the book seek to understand the historical and cultural roots of torture; to assess its impacts on survivors, their societies, and those who engage in it or with its victims; to consider philosophical arguments about its justification; and to consider how law and lawyers should confront the problem of torture. While there is no single message or thesis running throughout the book, all of the chapters seek to bring out the complexity of torture as a social, psychological, legal and ethical problem. The introductory chapter, by torture survivor Albie Sachs, who went on to become a justice on the Constitutional Court of South Africa, demonstrates many of the challenges that torture creates for a society, and for conceiving justice in the wake of torture. Many of the subsequent chapters address the possibilities and difficulties for law and social institutions to respond effectively to torture by creating legal frameworks and structural barriers to guard against the temptations that torture offers. While none of the chapters defend using torture, many grapple with the difficulties of explaining convincingly why ethics absolutely prohibits torture.Less
This book gathers fourteen essays on torture, addressing its complexities from the perspectives of psychology, history, philosophy, law, and cultural commentary. It appears in the wake of the American “War on Terror,” and the apparent evaporation of a broad consensus in international law, the U.S. legal community, and public thinking that torture is never an acceptable act, even in war. The chapters of the book seek to understand the historical and cultural roots of torture; to assess its impacts on survivors, their societies, and those who engage in it or with its victims; to consider philosophical arguments about its justification; and to consider how law and lawyers should confront the problem of torture. While there is no single message or thesis running throughout the book, all of the chapters seek to bring out the complexity of torture as a social, psychological, legal and ethical problem. The introductory chapter, by torture survivor Albie Sachs, who went on to become a justice on the Constitutional Court of South Africa, demonstrates many of the challenges that torture creates for a society, and for conceiving justice in the wake of torture. Many of the subsequent chapters address the possibilities and difficulties for law and social institutions to respond effectively to torture by creating legal frameworks and structural barriers to guard against the temptations that torture offers. While none of the chapters defend using torture, many grapple with the difficulties of explaining convincingly why ethics absolutely prohibits torture.
Christopher J. Einolf
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226529387
- eISBN:
- 9780226529554
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226529554.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter looks at US willingness to use torture as a means of combat, and the conditions under which its leaders and soldiers have thought torture legitimate. Prior to the US’s wars in Iraq and ...
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This chapter looks at US willingness to use torture as a means of combat, and the conditions under which its leaders and soldiers have thought torture legitimate. Prior to the US’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, American soldiers used torture in only two previous international conflicts: the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902 and the Vietnam War. There are several similarities between these historical conflicts and recent ones that may explain why torture has been more readily used in them. These include racism toward the enemy, allowing for its dehumanization; the fact that these were all counterinsurgency wars, which makes torture more useful; and the enemy’s disrespect for the laws of war, leading to the possibility of delegitimizing their status as soldiers. The current War on Terror resembles these earlier conflicts in many respects, but is exceptional in that US officials declared the enemy to be illegitimate and ordered the use of torture. To prevent future torture, this chapter recommends taking the moral reasoning of soldiers seriously, and urges us to come up with arguments against torture that soldiers will recognize as valid. It also suggests changing international law to help soldiers see such law as relevant and fair.Less
This chapter looks at US willingness to use torture as a means of combat, and the conditions under which its leaders and soldiers have thought torture legitimate. Prior to the US’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, American soldiers used torture in only two previous international conflicts: the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902 and the Vietnam War. There are several similarities between these historical conflicts and recent ones that may explain why torture has been more readily used in them. These include racism toward the enemy, allowing for its dehumanization; the fact that these were all counterinsurgency wars, which makes torture more useful; and the enemy’s disrespect for the laws of war, leading to the possibility of delegitimizing their status as soldiers. The current War on Terror resembles these earlier conflicts in many respects, but is exceptional in that US officials declared the enemy to be illegitimate and ordered the use of torture. To prevent future torture, this chapter recommends taking the moral reasoning of soldiers seriously, and urges us to come up with arguments against torture that soldiers will recognize as valid. It also suggests changing international law to help soldiers see such law as relevant and fair.
Kathleen M. Coleman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226529387
- eISBN:
- 9780226529554
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226529554.003.0006
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter looks at the early recorded history of torture, and argues that torture as a technique of interrogation in ancient Rome must be seen in the context of the degree of physical suffering ...
More
This chapter looks at the early recorded history of torture, and argues that torture as a technique of interrogation in ancient Rome must be seen in the context of the degree of physical suffering that was deemed appropriate to the status of a person accused of a crime. Under Roman law, slaves could be tortured to extract evidence and confessions of guilt. At various times in ancient Rome, these sanctions were also applied to free persons, in particular when they lost their status in the wake of committing capital crimes. Roman jurists frequently questioned the efficacy of torture as a means of extracting the truth, whether from free persons or from slaves. At the same time, after the virtually universal grant of citizenship to all free persons in 212 CE, judicial savagery increased. Ultimately, the use of torture as both a means of interrogation and an instrument of punishment coalesced in the treatment of the late antique Christian martyrs, who undermined the entire purpose of torture by enduring it, thereby paradoxically demonstrating their innocence in the process of proving their guilt.Less
This chapter looks at the early recorded history of torture, and argues that torture as a technique of interrogation in ancient Rome must be seen in the context of the degree of physical suffering that was deemed appropriate to the status of a person accused of a crime. Under Roman law, slaves could be tortured to extract evidence and confessions of guilt. At various times in ancient Rome, these sanctions were also applied to free persons, in particular when they lost their status in the wake of committing capital crimes. Roman jurists frequently questioned the efficacy of torture as a means of extracting the truth, whether from free persons or from slaves. At the same time, after the virtually universal grant of citizenship to all free persons in 212 CE, judicial savagery increased. Ultimately, the use of torture as both a means of interrogation and an instrument of punishment coalesced in the treatment of the late antique Christian martyrs, who undermined the entire purpose of torture by enduring it, thereby paradoxically demonstrating their innocence in the process of proving their guilt.
