Abstract
Abstract Efforts to accommodate the use of torture within the Western legal tradition have a long history. For half a millennium the law courts of continental Europe tortured suspected persons to obtain evidence. They acted openly and according to law. Investigation under torture was a routine part of criminal procedure in late medieval and early modern times. The jurists and judges who elaborated and administered this system were aware of the dangers of coerced evidence, and accordingly, they framed rules of safeguard meant to make tortured confessions reliable. Across the centuries it became clear that the safeguards were far from safe. In the end, the European states conceded that the long experiment with torture was a failure, and across the eighteenth century they banned the use of torture from their legal systems.
Published Version
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