Torture, Power, and Law

Abstract

This volume brings together the most important writing on torture and the "war on terrorism" 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David Luban reflects on this contentious topic in a powerful sequence of essays including two new and previously unpublished pieces.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.

Torture, Dignity, and Humiliation

“…In terms of pure pain levels, such operations may even exceed those that are involved in many of the more sophisticated torture techniques, but the distinctive evil that characterizes torture remains absent in such unfortunate medical situations. Another telling example is the case of childbirth: women who choose to go through labor without anesthetics typically experience extreme pain, but they do not regard this as an evil at all (Luban , 127).…”

“…The paper is structured as follows. First, I introduce three contemporary analyses that purport to explain the evil of torture according to its humiliating nature, that of David Sussman (), Peter Schaber () and David Luban (). To challenge the view that humiliation is the principal evil of torture, I first introduce an example taken from fictional literature (section 3).…”

“… It is worth remarking that this aim need not be founded in any sadistic or narcissistic character traits of the torturer. There is clear evidence to suggest that inflicting humiliation is a highly effective means to break down a person (Luban , 150), so one can “reasonably” intend to bring about humiliation simply as a means.…”

Informers, agents and the liberal ideology of collusion in Northern Ireland

“…The aim of this article is to examine what will be called the 'liberal ideology of collusion' as an aspect of British state counterinsurgency practice in Northern Ireland (Luban 2014).…”

“…Finally the article will critically reflect on the wider meaning of what is understood as a deeply embedded culture and pervasive 'liberal ideology' of collusion (Luban 2014) as a paradigm of contemporary governance (Agamben 2005) and counterinsurgency practice. 4 Collusion here is understood as the involvement of state agents (members of the police, army, prison and intelligence services) or state officials (government ministers, legal officers, civil servants), directly or indirectly, through commission, omission, collaboration or connivance, with armed non-state groups or agents, in wrongful acts involving, or related to, non-state political violence (McGovern 2015).…”