Dershowitz explains his stance on torture

I heard Dershowitz on Channel 4 News last arguing that he was against torture but that he wanted it done under warrants. Here he makes his case more eloquently and, as an empirical argument, it's not bad; as he argues that making people sign warrants would actually reduce the number of people who got tortured and avoid situations like Abu Ghraib.

However, where his argument falls apart is when he leans towards the "realist's" view of the world. That it's happening anyway and there's nothing anybody can do about it.

Well, there is. If torture is illegal and a President does it, you impeach him. If the CIA torture and it's illegal, you prosecute the officers who participated in it. I can think of no other crime where someone like Dershowitz would argue that you have to, in effect, legalise it because people are going to break the law anyway.

Tags: Dershowitz, torture