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Indirect Violence And Legitimation: Torture, Surrogacy, And The U.S. War On Terror, Eric Bonds
Indirect Violence And Legitimation: Torture, Surrogacy, And The U.S. War On Terror, Eric Bonds
Societies Without Borders
This paper contributes to the sociological study of legitimation, specifically focusing on the state legitimation of torture and other forms of violence that violate international normative standards. While sociologists have identified important discursive techniques of legitimation, this paper suggests that researchers should also look at state practices where concerns regarding legitimacy are “built in” to the very practice of certain forms of violence. Specifically, the paper focuses on surrogacy, through which powerful states may direct or benefit from the violence carried out by client states or other armed groups while at the same time attempting to appear separate from and …
Wikileaking The Truth About American Unaccountability For Torture, Lisa Hajjar
Wikileaking The Truth About American Unaccountability For Torture, Lisa Hajjar
Societies Without Borders
Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions are international offenses and perpetrators can be prosecuted abroad if accountability is not pursued at home. The US torture policy, instituted by the Bush administration in the context of the “war on terror” presents a contemporary example of liability for gross crimes under international law. For this reason, classification and secrecy have functioned in tandem as a shield to block public knowledge about prosecutable offenses. Keeping such information secret and publicizing deceptive official accounts that contradict the truth are essential to propaganda strategies to sustain American support or apathy about the country’s multiple current …
Tainted Provenance: When, If Ever, Should Torture Evidence Be Admissible, Michael P. Scharf
Tainted Provenance: When, If Ever, Should Torture Evidence Be Admissible, Michael P. Scharf
Faculty Publications
Written by a consultant to the United Nation's newly established Cambodia Genocide Tribunal, "Tainted Provenance" examines one of the most important legal questions that will face the Tribunal as it begins its trials next year -- whether evidence of the Khmer Rouge command structure that came from interrogation sessions at the infamous Tuol Sleng torture facility should be considered notwithstanding the international exclusionary rule for evidence procured by torture. The issue of whether there should be exceptions to the torture evidence exclusionary rule (and how those exceptions should be crafted to avoid abuse) has significant implications beyond the international tribunal, …