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Full-Text Articles in Law
Unspeakably Cruel: Torture, Medical Ethics, And The Law, George J. Annas
Unspeakably Cruel: Torture, Medical Ethics, And The Law, George J. Annas
Faculty Scholarship
Torture is a particularly horrible crime, and any participation of physicians in torture has always been difficult to comprehend. As General Telford Taylor explained to the American judges at the trial of the Nazi doctors in Nuremberg, Germany (called the “Doctors' Trial”), “To kill, to maim, and to torture is criminal under all modern systems of law . . . yet these [physician] defendants, all of whom were fully able to comprehend the nature of their acts . . . are responsible for wholesale murder and unspeakably cruel tortures.” Taylor told the judges that it was the obligation of the …
Military Justice At Abu Ghraib, Jeffrey F. Addicott
Military Justice At Abu Ghraib, Jeffrey F. Addicott
Faculty Articles
Previous efforts to denigrate the credibility of U.S. war policies in the War on Terror pale in the wake of the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib. Photographic evidence of American soldiers abusing detainees created a firestorm of allegations concerning illegal interrogation practices and threatened to derail fundamental legal and policy pillars upon which America conducts the War on Terror. It raised the question of whether the prison abuse reflected a systemic policy to illegally obtain information from detainees or isolated acts of criminal behavior by a handful of soldiers. Thanks to several investigative reports, the legal and policy pillars …
Accountability Of State And Non-State Actors For Human Rights Abuses In The 'War On Terror', Laura T. Dickinson
Accountability Of State And Non-State Actors For Human Rights Abuses In The 'War On Terror', Laura T. Dickinson
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
The decisions regarding detainees in the so-called "war on terror" - Hamdi, Padilla, and Rasul - leave a number of questions unresolved. This essay focuses on one question in particular: What happens when terrorists are detained not by U.S. authorities, but by private contractors hired by U.S. authorities? Domestically and internationally, we are seeing an increasing turn to private contractors performing what we might think of as core governmental functions. Accordingly, it is vital to consider to what extent private actors involved in the treatment of detainees in the war on terror can be held accountable for their actions. Although …
Liberalism, Torture, And The Ticking Bomb, David Luban
Liberalism, Torture, And The Ticking Bomb, David Luban
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Torture used to be incompatible with American values. Our Bill of Rights forbids cruel and unusual punishment, and that has come to include all forms of corporal punishment except prison and death by methods purported to be painless. Americans and our government have historically condemned states that torture; we have granted asylum or refuge to those who fear it. The Senate ratified the Convention Against Torture, Congress enacted antitorture legislation, and judicial opinions spoke of "the dastardly and totally inhuman act of torture.” Then came September 11.
Affirming The Ban On Harsh Interrogation, Mary Ellen O'Connell
Affirming The Ban On Harsh Interrogation, Mary Ellen O'Connell
Journal Articles
Beginning in 2002, lawyers for the Bush Administration began producing the now infamous legal memoranda on the subject of interrogation. The memoranda advise interrogators that they can torture people without fear of prosecution in connection with the so-called global war on terror. Much has been and will be written about the expedient and erroneous legal analysis of the memos. One issue at risk of being overlooked, however, because the memos emphasize torture, is that the United States must respect limits far short of torture in the conduct of interrogations. The United States may not use any form of coercion against …
The Status Of Detainees From The Iraq And Afghanistan Conflicts, Srividhya Ragavan, Michael S. Mireles
The Status Of Detainees From The Iraq And Afghanistan Conflicts, Srividhya Ragavan, Michael S. Mireles
Faculty Scholarship
The paper is premised on the idea that the future course of international law will be impacted by the United States' ability to adhere to international treaties to which it is a signatory. Hence, the current administration bears a responsibility to avoid unwisely stretching, distorting, or avoiding the principles of international law for short-term gain in a manner that jeopardizes long-term sustainable policy. The United States should be wary of creating a dangerous precedent - not only for the world, but for itself. If the United States shirks from or misinterprets international legal principles, it leaves the forum open for …
Torture's Truth, Louis Michael Seidman
Torture's Truth, Louis Michael Seidman
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
In this Article, I argue that the obstacles to having a serious conversation about torture are exacerbated by a truth that torture teaches us - a truth that we cannot afford fully to know and, so, frantically try to obscure. Law is about respect for commitments and limits, and the existence of torture challenges the possibility of such respect. If we are prepared to torture, then, it would seem, we are prepared to do anything, and the restraint that law purports to impose upon us is a fraud. Torture's truth, then, is that all of our promises to ourselves and …
Protecting Rights In The Age Of Terrorism: Challenges And Opportunities, Rosa Brooks
Protecting Rights In The Age Of Terrorism: Challenges And Opportunities, Rosa Brooks
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Depending on whom you speak to these days (and the mood in which you find them), international law is either practically moribund, or it's more vibrant and important than it has been for years. To take the good news story first, international law issues have been at the forefront of public discourse over the past few years. Pick your issue: the U.N. Charter and the international law on the use of force? The Convention Against Torture? The Geneva Conventions? You'll find it on the front page these days. Journalists are phoning international law professors for background briefings, and students are …