Using law in order to make torture invisible. A comparison of Spain and the United States

How can liberal democracies implement policies of torture, knowing that such practices are prohibited by both domestic and international law? We answer this question by investigating two cases: Spain since the democratic transition and the United States in the early 2000s. The literature on the subject emphasizes that liberal democracies that resort to torture develop a stratagem: they make it invisible. Although it is consistent with this thesis, our study highlights another aspect. In Spain and in the United States, the supporters of torture have used the law to create lawless zones.