Principle of proportionality

January 23, 2015
Mike DeNunzio
San Francisco

The 1987 U.N. Convention on Torture ratified by the U.S. recognizes torture is inhumane, immoral, and produces lies, truths and half-truths. The fatal flaw in the U.N. position is the errant absolutism of unrestricted power that dares say that “no circumstances may justify torture; no state of war, no political instability, no public emergency.”

Civilized societies wisely use the time-honored legal ethical principle of proportionality to determine punishment for a current or future illegal act. Surely no government or religion can have absolute unrestricted legal or moral power to prohibit any means that could stop the nuclear incineration of millions. Such an opponent would be insane, or a rational accomplice to mass murder.

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