Law, Economics, and Torture

Authors

James Boyd White, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2009

Abstract

This paper addresses three sets of questions, among which it wishes to draw connections: (1) Why has there been so little resistance to the recent massive transfer of national wealth to the rich and super-rich? It is the majority who are injured, and they presumably hold the power in a democracy: why have they not exercised it? (2) Why are law schools so dominated by questions of policy, with rather little interest in the intellectual and linguistic activities of the practicing lawyer and judge? Why indeed do judicial opinions themselves seem so often to be written in a dead and mechanical way? (3) Why has there been so little outrage and outcry at the present administration's efforts to make the torture of suspects and captives a normal and legalized part of the government's business?

Publication Information & Recommended Citation

White, James Boyd. "Law, Economics, and Torture." In Law and Democracy in the Empire of Force, edited by H. J. Powell and J. B. White, 265-84. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009.