Is Coercive Interrogation of Terrorist Suspects Effective - A Response to Bagaric and Clarke
![handle is hein.journals/usflr40 and id is 487 raw text is: The Torture Debate
Is Coercive Interrogation of Terrorist
Suspects Effective? A Response to
Bagaric and Clarke
By PHILIP N.S. RUMNEY*
IN THEIR RECENT ARTICLE, Mirko Bagaric and Julie Clarke pro-
pose that in certain circumstances torture is morally justifiable and
should be permitted as an interrogation device in order to prevent
significant harm to others.1 Their article is one of a growing number
of scholarly works that have considered the efficacy of torture in such
circumstances. Indeed, Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule argue that:
[a]mong legal academics, a near consensus has emerged: coercive
interrogation must be kept 'illegal,' but nonetheless permitted in cer-
tain circumstances.2 This body of work has been given added impor-
tance because of the ongoing threats of terrorist attacks in the United
States and elsewhere, as well as growing evidence that as part of the
war on terror, officials within the Bush Administration have sanc-
* LL.B. (Hons); LL.M. Reader, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom. E-
mail p.rumney@shu.ac.uk. My thanks to Professor Eric Posner of the University of Chicago
Law School, and my colleagues Martin O'Boyle and Sam Burton, for commenting upon
earlier drafts of this Article.
1. Mirko Bagaric &Julie Clarke, Not Enough Official Torture in the World? The Circum-
stances in Which Torture Is Morally Justifiable, 39 U.S.F. L. REv. 581, 583, 585 (2005).
2. Eric A. Posner & Adrian Vermeule, Should Coercive Interrogation Be Legal? 2 (Univ.
of Chi. Pub. Law & Legal Theory Working Paper No. 84, 2005). While it is indeed the case
that a consensus is emerging within legal scholarship, there are still significant differences
between individual viewpoints. As a form of shorthand, those who have explored the possi-
ble advantages of a system of coercive interrogation operating within a legal framework of
exceptions shall, for the purpose of this Article, be termed proponents. This is for ease of
reference and is not intended to imply that this group of scholars thinks torture or other
ill-treatment is a generally favorable thing. Many, such as Alan Dershowitz, have made clear
their general opposition to the use of torture. See also infra note 35 and accompanying text;
Alan M. Dershowitz, The Torture Warrant: A Response to Professor Strauss, 48 N.Y.L. Scrt. L.
Rav. 275, 275-76 (2004) (I am generally against torture as a normative matter, and I would
like to see its use minimized.).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/usflr40&div=19&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Is Coercive Interrogation of Terrorist Suspects Effective - A Response to Bagaric and Clarke
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