Torture and coercive interrogation: A critical discussion

Abstract

AcknowledgementsI would like to take this opportunity to thank Sam Burton and James Marson for all of the advice and support they have provided. Further, I would like to express my gratitude towards them for their continual dedication to the Sheffield Hallam Law department. AbstractThis thesis aims to explore why torture, deemed illegitimate by the Western world for more than a century, has resurfaced as a topic of debate, and persists despite its formal prohibition. It also endeavours to shed light on the main issues involved in the 'torture debate'. To do so, it begins by exploring the history of torture; examining how it has developed over time, and how its uses have changed. Next, the thesis provides the context in which the modern torture debate exists in; mapping the change in legal and political dynamics that occurred in America as a consequence of 9/11 and the Iraq war, and analysing how this altered both public and institutional views towards the torture evidenced throughout the ensuing 'war on terror'.