Torture, Power, and Law

by David Luban

This volume brings together the most important writing on torture and the 'war on terror by one of the leading US voices in the torture debate. Philosopher and legal ethicist David Luban reflects on this contentious topic in a powerful sequence of essays including two new and previously unpublished pieces. He analyzes the trade-offs between security and human rights, as well as the connection between torture, humiliation, and human dignity, the fallacy of using ticking bomb scenarios in debates about torture, and the ethics of government lawyers. The book develops an illuminating and novel conception of torture as the use of pain and suffering to communicate absolute dominance over the victim. Factually stimulating and legally informed, this volume provides the clearest analysis to date of the torture debate. It brings the story up to date by discussing the Obama administration's failure to hold torturers accountable.

Genres: Law

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 2014

Reviews

[Yuri Jinkings · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing book by Professor David Luban! It brilliantly shows how urgent and essential is the academic, legal and judicial debate over the issue of torture not only in the US but world-widely.