Legal Commentary

Luban v. Taylor on Torture

By Jonathan H. Adler

In a recent column on the Yoo-Bybee OPR report and Margolis memo, the National Journal?s Stuart Taylor suggested that ?the kind of waterboarding that the agency proposed in 2002 was not illegal torture.?  David Luban critiqued Taylor?s article at Balkinization. ?Goodbye, poor judgment ? hello, legalization.?  Taylor has a repl, appended as an update to Luban?s post, and Luban promises a surreply will follow.

In a related vein, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review?s online supplement, PENNumbra, is sponsoring a debate on whether John Yoo and Jay Bybee should be prosecuted for authorizing torture.  The first entry in that debate, Professor Claire Finkelstein arguing in the affirmative, has been posted.  A response from Professor Michael Lewis will follow.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on February 27, 2010 (boomark / email).