In Torture and the Law of Proof John H. Langbein explores the world of the thumbscrew and the rack, engines of torture authorized for investigating crime in European legal systems from medieval times until well into the eighteenth century. Drawing on juristic literature and legal records, Langbein's book, first published in 1977, remains the definitive account of how European legal systems became dependent on the use of torture in their routine criminal procedures, and how they eventually worked themselves free of it. The book has recently taken on an eerie relevance as a consequence of controversial American and British interrogation practices in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In a new introduction, Langbein contrasts the "new" law of torture with the older European law and offers some pointed lessons about the difficulty of reconciling coercion with accurate investigation. Embellished with fascinating illustrations of torture devices taken from an eighteenth-century criminal code, this crisply written account will engage all those interested in torture's remarkable grip on European legal history.

Besides being cruel and inhumane, torture does not work the way torturers assume it does. As Shane O’Mara’s account of the neuroscience of suffering reveals, extreme stress creates profound problems for memory, mood, and thinking, and sufferers predictably produce information that is deeply unreliable, or even counterproductive and dangerous.

Documents US Government attempts to justify torture techniques and coercive interrogation practices in ongoing hostilities.

The use of torture, at least under some conditions, has gained some prominent defenders. This title brings together lawyers, political theorists, social scientists and others to debate the advisability of maintaining its absolute ban and to reflect on what it says about our societies if we do--or do not--adhere to it in all circumstances.

"This book focuses on the science, law and morality behind interrogational methods. It develops, for the first time, a comprehensive discussion regarding the legality of torture and the efficacy of interrogation. In other words, scientific research has concluded that torture is not effective. This then raises a natural question: What interrogational methods are effective? How does one employ those methods in way that is consistent with law and morality?"--