Transnational Torture: Law, Violence, and State Power in the United States and India
"Transnational Torture by Jinee Lokaneeta reviewed with Prachi Patankar" on the blog Kafila.
Evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and harsh interrogation techniques at Guantánamo Bay beg the question: has the “war on terror” forced liberal democracies to rethink their policies and laws against torture? Transnational Torture focuses on the legal and political discourses on torture in India and the United States—two common-law based constitutional democracies—to theorize the relationship between law, violence, and state power in liberal democracies.

Analyzing about one hundred landmark Supreme Court cases on torture in India and the United States, memos and popular imagery of torture, Jinee Lokaneeta compellingly demonstrates that even before recent debates on the use of torture in the war on terror, the laws of interrogation were much more ambivalent about the infliction of excess pain and suffering than most political and legal theorists have acknowledged. Rather than viewing the recent policies on interrogation as anomalous or exceptional, Lokaneeta effectively argues that efforts to accommodate excess violence—a constantly negotiated process—are long standing features of routine interrogations in both the United States and India, concluding that the infliction of excess violence is more central to democratic governance than is acknowledged in western jurisprudence.

1102992220
Transnational Torture: Law, Violence, and State Power in the United States and India
"Transnational Torture by Jinee Lokaneeta reviewed with Prachi Patankar" on the blog Kafila.
Evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and harsh interrogation techniques at Guantánamo Bay beg the question: has the “war on terror” forced liberal democracies to rethink their policies and laws against torture? Transnational Torture focuses on the legal and political discourses on torture in India and the United States—two common-law based constitutional democracies—to theorize the relationship between law, violence, and state power in liberal democracies.

Analyzing about one hundred landmark Supreme Court cases on torture in India and the United States, memos and popular imagery of torture, Jinee Lokaneeta compellingly demonstrates that even before recent debates on the use of torture in the war on terror, the laws of interrogation were much more ambivalent about the infliction of excess pain and suffering than most political and legal theorists have acknowledged. Rather than viewing the recent policies on interrogation as anomalous or exceptional, Lokaneeta effectively argues that efforts to accommodate excess violence—a constantly negotiated process—are long standing features of routine interrogations in both the United States and India, concluding that the infliction of excess violence is more central to democratic governance than is acknowledged in western jurisprudence.

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Transnational Torture: Law, Violence, and State Power in the United States and India

Transnational Torture: Law, Violence, and State Power in the United States and India

by Jinee Lokaneeta
Transnational Torture: Law, Violence, and State Power in the United States and India

Transnational Torture: Law, Violence, and State Power in the United States and India

by Jinee Lokaneeta

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Overview

"Transnational Torture by Jinee Lokaneeta reviewed with Prachi Patankar" on the blog Kafila.
Evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and harsh interrogation techniques at Guantánamo Bay beg the question: has the “war on terror” forced liberal democracies to rethink their policies and laws against torture? Transnational Torture focuses on the legal and political discourses on torture in India and the United States—two common-law based constitutional democracies—to theorize the relationship between law, violence, and state power in liberal democracies.

Analyzing about one hundred landmark Supreme Court cases on torture in India and the United States, memos and popular imagery of torture, Jinee Lokaneeta compellingly demonstrates that even before recent debates on the use of torture in the war on terror, the laws of interrogation were much more ambivalent about the infliction of excess pain and suffering than most political and legal theorists have acknowledged. Rather than viewing the recent policies on interrogation as anomalous or exceptional, Lokaneeta effectively argues that efforts to accommodate excess violence—a constantly negotiated process—are long standing features of routine interrogations in both the United States and India, concluding that the infliction of excess violence is more central to democratic governance than is acknowledged in western jurisprudence.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780814752791
Publisher: New York University Press
Publication date: 08/29/2011
Pages: 301
Product dimensions: 6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jinee Lokaneeta is Associate Professor of Political Science at Drew University (NJ).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: Do the Ghosts of Leviathan Linger On? Law, Violence, and Torture in Liberal Democracies 1

1 Law's Struggle with Violence: Ambivalence in the "Routine" Jurisprudence of Interrogations in the United States 34

2 "Being Helplessly Civilized Leaves Us at the Mercy of the Beast": Post-9/11 Discourses on Torture in the United States 68

3 Torture in the TV Show 24: Circulation of Meanings 108

4 Jurisprudence on Torture and Interrogations in India 130

5 Contemporary States of Exception: Extraordinary Laws and Interrogation in India 166

6 Conclusion: Unraveling the Exception: Torture in Liberal Democracies 199

Notes 209

Selected Bibliography 271

Index 281

About the Author 293

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Blending together the best resources of contemporary political theory and comparative political inquiry, her argument explains why recourse to torture in liberal regimes is altogether banal and, at the same time, profoundly disturbing.” -Timothy V. Kaufman-Osborn,author of From Noose to Needle: Capital Punishment and the Late Liberal State

"Those striving to understand the persistence of state violence, and rid society of it, would greatly benefit from reading Transnational Torture." -Himal Magazine,

"This book is a valuable resource for anyone keen on understanding why torture remains an integral feature of liberal democracies, as well as for those interested in the American and Indian jurisprudence on torture."-A. Mazumdar,CHOICE

-Drew University,Truth about Torture

Transnational Torture is a truly original study of two liberal democracies rarely compared to each other, and the comparison produces a sum of understanding greater than its parts. Lokaneeta's analysis of American and Indian jurisprudence of custody, confession, police discretion, and the (often exaggerated) distinction between ‘exceptional’ and ‘routine’ state violence is empirically detailed while also theoretically transcendental and fresh. This book will edify anyone seeking a deeper understanding of torture and the law.”
-Lisa Hajjar,author of Courting Conflict: The Israeli Military Court System in the West Bank and Gaza

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