Torture by Private Actors and ‘Gold-Plating’ the Offence in National Law

The email exchange between Andrew Clapham and Paola Gaeta set forth in this chapter offers a snapshot of an argument over whether states parties to the Torture Convention are obliged to criminalise in domestic law the crime of torture as such. It goes on to explore what are the pros and cons of demanding that torture requires the involvement of a ‘state official’ and whether states can ‘gold-plate’ their definition of torture in domestic law, thus extending the crime into the private sphere. In the end, this is a discussion about the very nature of torture, or if you like, torture’s ‘quintessence’.

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