torture
389 Articles
Belhaj v. Straw: UK Court of Appeal allows torture claims to proceed
The UK Court of Appeal has handed down its judgment (full text) in the case brought by Abdul-Hakim Belhaj and his wife against the UK’s alleged role in their abduction, rendition…
Time to Give the Sleeves From Our Vest and Acknowledge the Extraterritoriality of the Convention Against Torture
As David Luban noted yesterday evening, Charlie Savage of The New York Times reported that the Obama Administration likely plans to continue to espouse Bush-era positions on the…
“Just looking for loopholes…”
…is what W. C. Fields supposedly said when someone found him leafing through the Bible. Apparently some lawyers in the Obama administration are following Fields’s lead,…
Supreme Court of Canada Rules Individuals cannot sue a Foreign State in Canada for Torture Committed Abroad
On Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) affirmed that individuals cannot bring civil actions in Canada against a foreign state, which includes foreign officials, for acts…
Bahraini Prince Could be Investigated for Torture by UK Police
A member of the Bahraini royal family with close ties to the United Kingdom may soon be under investigation by British police for his alleged role in torturing dissidents during…
UK High Court Hears Case of Pakistani Held for a Decade Without Charges by UK and US
On Sept. 23, the United Kingdom High Court began its three-day hearing of a case involving the alleged kidnapping, torture, detention, and subsequent rendition of Pakistani citizen…
Kerry Tells North Korea to Shut Down Its Prison Camp System
In one of the highest profile responses to this past February’s report by the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, United…
Now is the Time to Think About Detentions with ISIL: A Response to Benjamin Wittes
Over at Lawfare, Ben Wittes shrugs off Jeff Stein’s important question,“What Will U.S. Forces Do With ISIS Prisoners?” Ben’s reaction, I believe, minimizes several important…
A Guantánamo Test Case for the “New” D.C. Circuit
Back in August, I wrote about the D.C. Circuit’s disappointing decision in Hatim v. Obama (the genital searches case), in which the Court of Appeals (1) held that the…
Disappearing People and Disappearing the Evidence: The Deeper Significance of the SSCI Report
When the executive summary of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s (SSCI) report on the CIA’s torture program is finally released, it is likely to discredit a story…
Untold History of the Torture Program
In this morning’s Los Angeles Times, Larry Siems and I have an op-ed about the soldiers and public servants who tried to expose and end the torture program. It begins: After…
Torture and the SSCI Report
This August, torture is once again on our minds. On the heels of President Obama’s rather callous admission that “we tortured some folks,” the Senate Select Committee on…