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Glite Dictionary
judicial torture

judicial torture

9.9
Harmful actions by government officials to force a person to confess in a court case
  • noun
  • /dʒuˈdɪʃəl ˈtɔːrtʃər/
  • Offensive
translation icon : tortura judicial
  • Historians debate when judicial torture was first officially abolished in France.

Examples

  • Documentation reveals that judicial torture was sometimes used to extract confessions during witch trials.

  • The use of judicial torture was once common in European legal systems.

  • The use of judicial torture has been condemned worldwide.

  • Many countries have abolished judicial torture in their legal systems.

  • Historically, judicial torture was used to extract confessions from accused criminals during legal investigations.

  • In some countries, judicial torture is still sanctioned as a means to obtain information from suspects.

  • The practice of judicial torture has been condemned globally due to its inhumane nature and violation of human rights.

Surface Forms

judicial torture singular
judicial tortures plural

Morphology

judicial + torture

The meaning is directly compositional: 'judicial' (relating to courts or legal authorities) combined with 'torture' (intentional infliction of pain) yields 'torture carried out or authorized by judicial/legal authorities.' This construction is straightforward and cross-linguistically paralleled, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

The phrase judicial torture comes from old courts where judicial means 'from the court' and torture means 'pain used to force someone'. In those times judges allowed officials to use pain to make people confess, so the phrase now means 'torture ordered by the state' or 'torture used in legal cases'.