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Open research questions in Torture, Ethics, and Law

68 gap statements mined from Torture, Ethics, and Law papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 1,566 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • A limitation of this study is certainly the delayed evaluation of the victims, which prevents a reliable assessment of the causal relationship and compatibility between the reported history and the observed injuries.

    Torture in custody, a case series that highlight typical patterns of injuries and behaviors · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of awareness among women about fertility decline and assisted reproductive technologies. Women who wish to delay pregnancy often do not have access to accurate information about their fertility options.

    Women have the right to health care in prison. This should extend to freezing their eggs · 2026 · DOI

  • The study highlights the need for a deeper analysis of the role of fear in their actions.

    Awareness of the Crime vs Fear of Punishment – Selected Psychological Aspects of the Attitudes of Nazi War Criminals · 2026 · DOI

  • The gap in current research is the lack of a comprehensive mechanism for preventing torture. The lack of a proactive approach to preventing torture is a significant gap in current research.

    The role of the prevention torture as a mechanism for protecting the right to liberty and security in detention: conceptual, institutional, and practical dimensions · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of a framework to guide physician action under duress in authoritarian regimes. The need for a nuanced understanding of physicians' roles in repressive contexts, beyond simplistic notions of heroism or complicity. The importance of recognizing the ethical continuum in physician action, from non-complicity to more courageous forms of resistance.

    Between regime and responsibility: scaling physician ethics in times of crisis · 2026 · DOI

  • I finally argue against the position that the capacity for autonomous choice is lacking in inmates by disentangling the particular features of the prison-setting and show that the context of incarceration is not so substantially different from regular cases of suicide assistance that it warrants a difference in treatment.

    Assisted suicide for prisoners: An ethical and legal analysis from the Swiss context · 2022 · DOI

  • A host of people, including tutors, governesses, and babysitters claim the right, but “how far the right to corporal punishment is transferrable is entirely an open question!” Curiously, von Oertzen asserted both that there was an objectively existing “right” to use corporal punishment and that there was no consensus on where that right lay.

    A Right to Beat a Child? Corporal Punishment and the Law in Wilhelmine Germany · 2014 · DOI

  • This paper seeks to address both gaps in the literature by leveraging the use of experiments embedded in a pair of US national surveys to examine the impact of international law and military experience on individual attitudes toward torture.

    Martial Law? Military Experience, International Law, and Support for Torture · 2013 · DOI

  • The conviction for rape was reversed on appeal on grounds of insufficient evidence of the personal involvement of the accused in the rape: Musema v Prosecutor (Judgment), November 16, 2001 (ICTR Appeals Chamber).

    Rape as genocide: some questions arising · 2007 · DOI

  • To solve this apparent conflict between the stand taken by the relevant human-rights monitoring bodies and international criminal law, the author maintains that the defence of necessity is not available in the case of acts of interrogational torture because, in the circumstances under discussion (also called 'the ticking-bomb situation'), two requisite elements of necessity are lacking.

    May Necessity Be Available as a Defence for Torture in the Interrogation of Suspected Terrorists? · 2004 · DOI

  • Whether they would authorize preventive detention of someone like David, who may not exhibit the type of inability to control that is popularly associated with sex offenders, remains an open question, and pure preventive detention of someone like Moussaoui is undoubtedly not authorized by the Court's case law to date.

    A Jurisprudence of Dangerousness · 2003

  • The United States is an outlier among western democracies in its retention of the death penalty. There is a need to understand the history and efforts to abolish capital punishment in the United States.

    Capital punishment and the American agenda · 1987 · DOI

  • The review essay discusses the need for a nuanced understanding of the history and politics of torture.

    Review essay/the politics of torture · 1987 · DOI

  • The sample size is limited to 208 subjects. The survey only included college students. The descriptions of actual cases did not include racial characteristics or social class.

    GENERAL VERSUS SPECIFIC SUPPORT FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT · 1987 · DOI

  • There is a gap between public opinion and the actual application of capital punishment. The paper identifies this gap as a key area for investigation.

    GENERAL VERSUS SPECIFIC SUPPORT FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT · 1987 · DOI

  • The lack of a way to define execution and participation in mass murder and genocide as pathological in the standard classification system in psychopathology. The need to redefine normality and abnormality in the context of mass destruction.

    Genocide and Mass Destruction: Doing Harm to Others as a Missing Dimension in Psychopathology · 1986 · DOI

  • More extensive sampling of survivors of terrorist incidents is needed. Further study of the effectiveness of traditional psychotherapy for victims of terrorism is needed.

    A six‐year follow‐up of hostage victims · 1985 · DOI

  • It highlights the challenge of balancing the need to protect members of society with the need to avoid harming others.

    Punishment and societal defense · 1983 · DOI

  • Future research could explore the implications of societal defense for the establishment of practices aimed at protecting members of society. It could examine the relationship between societal defense and other concepts in criminal justice ethics.

    Punishment and societal defense · 1983 · DOI

  • The challenge of balancing the need to allow recovery for mental anguish with the need to prevent fraudulent claims.

    AN EXPANDING LEGAL DUTY: THE RECOVERY OF DAMAGES FOR MENTAL ANGUISH BY THOSE OBSERVING TORTIOUS ACTIVITY · 1981 · DOI

  • The question of what happened to those who decided not to participate in mass murder has been neglected. The story of one man who was unwilling to continue killing Jews has not been told.

    The ‘cowardly’ executioner: On disobedience in the SS · 1985 · DOI

  • The significance of the psychological trauma for the pathogenesis is well known.

    Psychological and Physical Long-term Effects of Torture: A Follow-up Examination of 22 Greek Persons Exposed to Torture 1967–1974 · 1985 · DOI

  • The initial prospects for the study of legal history were considered not encouraging. The growth of legal history is remarkable in the context of other developments in academic legal education.

    ‘A sucker for punishment'? Some reflections on an option · 1983 · DOI

  • The majority of these survivors lives in third world countries where locally funded rehabilitation services are minimal or non-existent, and most of the specialised rehabilitation centres for torture victims are non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who are totally dependent on foreign donors After a quarter of a century and impressive expansion of rehabilitation efforts worldwide, there is still no consensus about…

    THE WORK FIELD OF TORTURE AND NGOs – THE REALITY AND IMPACT · 2009 · DOI

  • The justice model falls short of addressing the question of what is just - The current state of social justice is not universally viewed as superior to the current state of criminal…

    Condemned to die: Life under sentence of death · 1982 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Torture, Ethics, and Law

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) There is a lack of awareness among women about fertility decline and assisted reproductive technologies (“Women have the right to health care in prison. This should extend to freezing…”, 2026); (2) The gap in current research is the lack of a comprehensive mechanism for preventing torture (“The role of the prevention torture as a mechanism for protecting the right to…”, 2026); (3) The lack of a framework to guide physician action under duress in authoritarian regimes (“Between regime and responsibility: scaling physician ethics in times of crisis”, 2026); (4) There is a need to understand the history and efforts to abolish capital punishment in the United States (“Capital punishment and the American agenda”, 1987); (5) The lack of a way to define execution and participation in mass murder and genocide as pathological in the standard classification system in psychopathology (“Genocide and Mass Destruction: Doing Harm to Others as a Missing Dimension in…”, 1986). 68 gap statements have been mined from Torture, Ethics, and Law papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 1,566 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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