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| Additional Physical Format: | Online version: Dayan, Joan, 1949- Story of cruel and unusual. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2007 (OCoLC)652427503 |
|---|---|
| Material Type: | Internet resource |
| Document Type: | Book, Internet Resource |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Colin Dayan |
| ISBN: | 9780262042390 0262042398 |
| OCLC Number: | 71350497 |
| Description: | xx, 100 p. ; 19 cm. |
| Contents: | Trials of definition -- Codes of law, bodies of color -- Dead to rights -- Mental states -- The threshold of suffering -- Tools of terror -- Torture language -- A new legal regime? -- Giving flesh to history. |
| Series Title: | Boston review book. |
| Other Titles: | Story of cruel & unusual |
| Responsibility: | Colin Dayan ; foreword by Jeremy Waldron. |
| More information: |
Table of Contents:
Foreword ix
1. Trials of definition 3
2. Codes of law, bodies of color 9
3. Dead to rights 17
4. Mental states 27
5. The threshold of suffering 39
6. Tools of terror 51
7. Torture language 59
8. A new legal regime? 73
9. Giving flesh to history 87
Notes 93
Reviews
Publisher Synopsis
[Dayan] builds her argument around one basic principle: that in a society of laws, we frame cruelty in terms of intent. Thus, she writes, we always have a loophole; it's not what we do but what we mean... The argument may be somewhat overstated, but with its implicit sense that cruel and unusual punishment is an ever-shifting standard, it can't help but raise compelling questions, forcing us to reconsider our founding documents and what they say about us. David Ulin Los Angeles Times Book Review Read more...
