“Judges must beware of hard constructions, and strained inferences; for there is no worse torture, than the torture of laws.”

—  Francis Bacon

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Judicature

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Francis Bacon 295
English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and auth… 1561–1626

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Francis Bacon photo

“Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences; for there is no worse torture than the torture of laws. Specially in case of laws penal, they ought to have care that that which was meant for terror be not tuned into rigour; and that they bring not upon the people that shower whereof the Scripture speaketh, Pluet super eos laqueos: for penal laws pressed are a shower of snares upon the people.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Of Judicature
Essays (1625)

Joseph Addison photo

“Strain not the laws to make their tortures grievous.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

Act III, scene v.
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)
Context: See they suffer death,
But in their deaths remember they are men,
Strain not the laws to make their tortures grievous.

Joseph Addison photo

“See they suffer death,
But in their deaths remember they are men,
Strain not the laws to make their tortures grievous.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

Act III, scene v
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)

Condoleezza Rice photo

“The United States government does not authorise or condone torture of detainees. Torture, and conspiracy to commit torture, are crimes under US law, wherever they may occur in the world.”

Condoleezza Rice (1954) American Republican politician; U.S. Secretary of State; political scientist

In response to the allegation that the U.S. has operated secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4500630.stm, December 5, 2005.

Alan M. Dershowitz photo

“I have no doubt that if an actual ticking bomb situation were to arise, our law enforcement authorities would torture. The real debate is whether such torture should take place outside of our legal system or within it. The answer to this seems clear: If we are to have torture, it should be authorized by the law.”

Alan M. Dershowitz (1938) American lawyer, author

"Is There a Torturous Road to Justice?", The Los Angles Times, 2001-11-08

“What does torture have in common with genocide, slavery and wars of aggression? They are all “jus cogens.” That’s Latin for “higher law” or “compelling law.””

Marjorie Cohn (1948) American law professor

This means that under international law, no country can ever pass a law that allows torture. There can be no immunity from criminal liability for violation of a “jus cogens” prohibition. The United States has always prohibited torture — in our Constitution, laws, executive orders, judicial decisions and treaties. When we ratify a treaty, it becomes part of US law under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture,” the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which the US ratified, states unequivocally. Torture is considered a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, also ratified by the United States. Geneva classifies grave breaches as war crimes. The US War Crimes Act and 18 USC, sections 818 and 3231, punish torture, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and inhuman, humiliating or degrading treatment. And the Torture Statute criminalizes the commission, attempt, or conspiracy to commit torture outside the United States.

State-Sanctioned Torture in the Age of Trump https://truthout.org/articles/state-sanctioned-torture-in-the-age-of-trump/, by Marjorie Cohn, Truthout (23 January 2017)

Robert Mugabe photo

“He imprisons and tortures at Guantanamo. He imprisoned and tortured at Abu Ghraib. He has secret torture chambers in Europe. Yes, he imprisons even here in the United States, with his jails carrying more blacks than his universities can ever enroll. He even suspends the provisions of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Take Guantanamo for example; at that concentration camp international law does not apply. The national laws of the people there do not apply. Laws of the United States of America do not apply. Only Bush's law applies. Can the international community accept being lectured by this man on the provisions of the universal declaration of human rights? Definitely not!”

Robert Mugabe (1924–2019) former President of Zimbabwe

Speech to the United Nations General Assembly (26 September 2007)
2000s, 2005 - 2009

“Certain characteristics must exist for a democracy to survive. First, laws must be constructed in fairness and equality; and second, obedience of law by the citizens, and those who judge and enforce them; without strict adherence to these principles, democracies fail.

1994”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)
Felix Frankfurter photo

“There is torture of mind as well as body; the will is as much affected by fear as by force. And there comes a point where this Court should not be ignorant as judges of what we know as men.”

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge

Watts v. Indiana, 338 U.S. 49, 52 (1949).
Judicial opinions

Condoleezza Rice photo

“The United States doesn't and can't condone torture. And I want to make very clear that that's the view and the policy of the administration, the policy of the president, and that he's made very clear to American personnel that we will not condone torture…. Senator, under no circumstances should we or have we condoned torture. And the president has been very clear that he expects everyone to live up to our international obligations and to American law.”

Condoleezza Rice (1954) American Republican politician; U.S. Secretary of State; political scientist

Secretary of State confirmation hearing http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/18/politics/18TEXT-RICE2.html?pagewanted=13&ei=5070&en=0134785e4e0eeadd&ex=1182225600, January 18, 2005.

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