The Legal and Moral Permissibility of Torture

Abstract

This paper attempts to address the legal and moral permissibility of torture under extreme situations. The use of torture has been prohibited by international law as a violation of human rights. In this paper, we will present a case of Public Committee Against Torture v. Israel, and analyse the legal permissibility of torture using the necessity defense. Furthermore, we will evaluate the permissibility of torture through contractarian, consequentialist, and deontologist viewpoints, on the premise that the act of torture has de facto been performed and it was the only way to obtain the truth. Ultimately, the three moral viewpoints collectively conclude that torture should be legally justifiable, while differ on the moral permissibility of the nature of the act.