The Marks of Civilisation: The Special Stigma of Torture



Farrell, Michelle ORCID: 0000-0001-6023-638X
(2022) The Marks of Civilisation: The Special Stigma of Torture. HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW, 22 (1).

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Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>The European Court of Human Rights attached a special stigma to torture in Ireland v United Kingdom, in its interpretation of the distinction between torture and other forms of ill-treatment. The concept is now central to the European Court’s description of torture under article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It is, I argue, significant that the Court reached for this particular phrase. I consider the special stigma as a parapraxis facilitating a reading of the Court’s ‘unconscious text’. I connect the power to stigmatise with torture to explore the special stigma’s figurative, material and theological implications. Stigma, with its multi-layered meaning and its deep connections to torture, is useful in working out how Western powers generated their self-images as civilised whilst persisting with practices of torture. With the special stigma, the European Court rehabilitated the civilising standard and resurrected the historic association between torture and stigma.</jats:p>

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Source info: 2022 22(1) Human Rights Law Review
Uncontrolled Keywords: torture, special stigma, article 3, civilisation, political theology
Divisions: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Law and Social Justice
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 15 Nov 2021 08:21
Last Modified: 11 Dec 2023 02:30
DOI: 10.1093/hrlr/ngab029
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3143106