On Fri, 17 Apr 2009 06:17:59 -0700, Jim Clark wrote: >>> "Mike Palij" <[email protected]> 17-Apr-09 6:54:53 AM >>> >>Here's a question that one might consider when covering ethics >>and topics such as Milgram's obedience to authority and related >>issues: >> >>When is it okay to violate ethical principles and even federal and >>international laws? > >JC: >When the laws are unjust or ill-founded?
Good point but who decides which laws are unjust or ill-founded? Some of the legal experts that I have heard discussing the legal foundation for the "torture memos" (e.g., Jonathan Turley of George Washington University Law School) say that the legal reasoning violates a number of legal principles as well as U.S. precedents in dealing with war criminals. A major problem that is represented here is what does an operative do if the Department of Justice (DoJ) says its okay to do X and Y? Rely on their authority? Assume that the DoJ has a better grasp of the legal and ethical principles than the operative? Or, as long as the DoJ takes responsibility for what happens, use their opinion to justify one's actions and claim that one was just following orders? It appear that the latter is being reinforced here. >>Mike: >>P.S. As a seperate exercise, we could also ask students to review >>the research literature on the effectiveness of torture to elicit any useful >>information. If it turns out that torture produces unreliable information, >>what possible justification could it have? > >JC: >Raises a quandary doesn't it? How can one properly research effectiveness >of torture? Well, one can do field studies and determine whether different techniques provide accurate information or not. On this point, consider Matthew Alexander's "How to Break a Terrorist". One can get background on this book from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/How-Break-Terrorist-Interrogators-Brutality/dp/1416573151 from books.google.com: http://books.google.com/books?id=qOqYNgAACAAJ&dq=%22how+to+break+a+terrorist%22&lr=&num=100 from a Time magazine review of the book: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1863053,00.html Others hold similar views. There are people who have been studying interrogation techniques for a long period of time though I don't think they've conducted randomized experiments on them. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
