Contemporary understandings of torture are ruled by a medico-legal duopoly: the language of law (regulating definition and prohibition) and that of medicine (controlling understandings of the body in pain). This duopoly has left little space for contextual conceptualisation – of ideological, emotional and imaginational impulses which function in readily recognising some forms of violence and dismissing others. This book challenges the rigour of this prevailing duopoly. In its place, it develops a new approach to critique the central scripts of 'law and torture' scholarship (around progress, violence, evidence and senses). Drawing on socio-legal and critical-theoretical scholarship, it aims to 'widen the apertures' of the dominant dogmas to their interconnected social, political, temporal and emotional dimensions. These dimensions, the book advances, hold the key to more fully understanding not only the production of torture's definition and prohibition; but also its normative contestation – to better grasp whose pain gets recognised and redressed and why.

‘It is seldom that critical legal practice meets deep comprehension, compassion and clarity with regard to understanding torture. In this debut text, Cakal presents nuanced ways to engage in anti-torture efforts while acknowledging and addressing challenges on the journey. A refreshingly reflexive and compelling book – essential.'

Victoria Canning - author of Torture and Torturous Violence, Lancaster University

‘Cakal calls for us to broaden our imagination, legal and otherwise, of what counts as torture. This is an important book, thoughtful, informed and rigorous in its critique of current legal approaches to thinking about torture, its causes and its effects.'

Tobias Kelly - Professor of Political and Legal Anthropology, University of Edinburgh

‘A path-breaking book for all those of us who care about, and strive towards, properly capturing and addressing the all-too-ubiquitous phenomena that the anti-torture norm seeks to proscribe and prevent.'

Natasa Mavronicola - Professor of Human Rights Law, University of Birmingham, author of Torture, Inhumanity and Degradation under Article 3 of the ECHR: Absolute Rights and Absolute Wrongs (2021)

‘Taking us beyond doctrinal accounts and approaches, Cakal's critical analysis opens up new ways of thinking about the relationship between law and torture. Engaging thoroughly with the wider literature and practice on the subject, deeply reflective and constantly probing, Law and Torture: Widening the Apertures from the Doctrinal to the Critical makes an important contribution to the field. It is essential reading for anyone looking for an in-depth examination that problematises conventional understandings of torture and ill-treatment.'

Lutz Oette - Professor of International Human Rights Law at SOAS University of London

‘Law and Torture is a valuable addition to the series and to legal-political-philosophical thinking. It must inform any practical engagement with the tortured victim who presents the unspeakable pain - the agony - of torture to the received and required doctrinal-juridical standard of suffering.’

Christopher Stanley Source: Law Society Gazette