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Sovereign Authority And Rule Of Law: The Effect Of U.S. Use Of Torture On Political Legitimacy, Sydney Bradley May 2021

Sovereign Authority And Rule Of Law: The Effect Of U.S. Use Of Torture On Political Legitimacy, Sydney Bradley

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Governmental sovereignty is created and maintained by mutual respect for the rule of law by the government and citizens. To maintain legitimacy, a government must act within the bounds of the contract that created it. Otherwise, the relationship founded by said contract would be nullified, as would the duties and obligations that flow from that relationship. Torture exemplifies an ultra vires act used by the United States to show the consequences of over-extended authority on political legitimacy and the rule of law. Founded on the philosophies of Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, and Christine Korsgaard, this research investigates the nature of …


Legal Ethics As A Moral Idea: A Theory Of Philosophical Legal Ethics Based On The Work Of Lon Fuller, Emanuel Raul Tucsa Jan 2014

Legal Ethics As A Moral Idea: A Theory Of Philosophical Legal Ethics Based On The Work Of Lon Fuller, Emanuel Raul Tucsa

LLM Theses

The legal philosophy of Lon Fuller, both in his idea of internal morality and in his theory of legal interpretation, is particularly useful for the purpose of making sense of the relationship between law and morality vis-à-vis the legal profession. Legal ethicists have recently developed accounts of legal ethics that are based on jurisprudential theories. These include the exclusive positivist theory of Tim Dare, the inclusive positivist approach of Bradley Wendel, and the substantive contextual judgment view of William Simon. Additionally, David Luban has proposed and evaluated an insightful interpretation of Fuller’s legal philosophy.

In this paper, I will argue …


Detainment And Torture In Guantanamo Bay: Events, Legality And Effectiveness, Samuel Fein Jun 2012

Detainment And Torture In Guantanamo Bay: Events, Legality And Effectiveness, Samuel Fein

Honors Theses

The first chapter found that following September 11th, the Bush Administration implemented policies allowing the indefinite detainment and torture of suspected terrorists. Many detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, as well as other detention facilities, were tortured, both physically and psychologically. The second chapter concluded that the Bush Administration was incorrect in claiming that the detainees were not subject to any protections under international law. According to international law, detainees are protected by either IHL (international humanitarian law) or by international human rights law. It was found that whether or not the prisoners can be held indefinitely and tried by military …


The Torture Debate: What The Scholars And The Intellectuals Are Saying, Dieudonné Balla Apr 2011

The Torture Debate: What The Scholars And The Intellectuals Are Saying, Dieudonné Balla

Global Honors Theses

In the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib investigation and the 2009 CASUSS report on post-9/11 interrogation practices, the question of state-sanctioned torture has become the subject of much public and scholarly debate. In this thesis, the author examines three arguments in support of lawful torture: Alan Dershowitz’s Law of Necessity and the concept of “torture warrants,” Michael Walzer’s “problem of dirty hands,” and Richard Posner’s notion of Constitutional interpretation in times of emergency.