Awkwardness

The Bush administration authorized the waterboarding of prisoners. Waterboarding is torture. Torture is prohibited by the Convention Against Torture, to which the U.S. is a signatory. This treaty requires a state to prosecute officals under its jurisdiction who violated the treaty. The U.S. Constitution makes this treaty binding law on U.S. officials, including Barack Obama, who swore an oath yesterday to uphold the former document.

All of this couldn’t be more straightfoward as a matter of the relevant legal rules.

I asked the students in my criminal punishment seminar yesterday why the treaty won’t be enforced by the new administration against officials of the old one. A student responded, “because it would be awkward.”

That’s about right I think.