Thursday, June 17, 2010

History of the Law of Torture

The United States Supreme Court, in declining to permit Meher Arar to seek redress from the American agents who sent him to Syria to be tortured, has declared that since the United States does not torture, the court has no jurisdiction over American state torturers.

Some Americans, to their credit, find this appalling, as here and here. At Slate, Dalia Lithwick compares the American reaction to the Canadian one and ponders what the international judicial consequences might be for the United States.
 
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