Abstract
Since the publication of her seminal essay “Does Torture Work?”, Hajjar (2009) has been a leading voice on torture in sociology and beyond. The publication of her most recent book, The War in Court, cements her authority on the subject from sociopolitical, legal, and cultural perspectives. The book documents the legal gymnastics performed by US government officials to justify the use of torture in the “War on Terror” from 9/11 to the present, as well as the battles lawyers have sparked to fight this mistreatment. Despite torture’s illegal status both domestically and in international law, it became standard operating procedure in the “War on Terror,” and Hajjar provides not only the philosophical underpinnings of this shift but details the steps that were taken to claim that abhorrent practices were not only legal but justifiable and necessary. As quickly as government officials claimed that torture was essential to combat terrorism, human rights lawyers were ready to fight legal battle after battle to prove otherwise. Indeed, as she states, the “War on Terror” was one waged not by politicians or soldiers, but by lawyers.
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