This timely and passionate book is the first to address itself to Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz's controversial arguments for the limited use of interrogational torture and its legalisation. • Argues that the respectability Dershowitz's arguments confer on the view that torture is a legitimate weapon in the war on terror needs urgently to be countered • Takes on the advocates of torture on their own utilitarian grounds • Timely and passionately written, in an accessible, jargon-free style • Forms part of the provocative and timely Blackwell Public Philosophy series.