Can torture be justified in exceptional circumstances? In this timely work, Michelle Farrell asks how and why this question has become such a central debate. She argues that the ticking bomb scenario is a fiction which blinds us to the reality of torture and investigates what it is that that scenario fails to represent. Farrell aims to reframe how we think about torture, and critically reflects on the historical and contemporary approaches to its use in exceptional situations. She demonstrates how torture, from its use in Algeria to the 'War on Terror', has been misrepresented, and appraises...

Human rights law has a significant impact today, globally and at the domestic level, on law, politics and life. Despite its extensive institutionalisation and its universal, transnational and domestic acceptance and presence, the value of human rights law is highly contested in politics and in practice. The media plays a role in constructing this polarity through its representation of political and ideological viewpoints and its, arguably, significant influence on public perception of rights.

This book seeks to untangle the interrelationships amongst the representation of rights in...