My review of David Luban's Torture, Power, and Law has been published by Criminal Justice Ethics. The review can be accessed via the publisher's website. An earlier version is on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This is a review essay of David Luban's important and prescient new book, Torture, Power, and Law. The review essay focuses on two of Luban's central arguments: The fallacious trade-off between civil liberties and national security after the 9/11 attacks and the manipulation of anti-torture law by Bush administration lawyers.
Although I largely agree with Luban's analysis, I contend that the "coercive interrogation program" and other war on terror policies cannot be fully understood without considering anti-Muslim attitudes in the United States. I also question whether, in analyzing the ethics of government lawyers, the distinction between frivolous and non-frivolous legal positions is as marked as Luban suggests.
With recent revelations about psychologists' complicity in torture, Luban's book certainly remains timely.