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>"Say a soldier who committed war crimes and, after serving his sentence, refuses to testify against their partners. Would you still grant them a right to refus

>"Say a soldier who committed war crimes and, after serving his sentence, refuses to testify against their partners. Would you still grant them a right to refusal on these grounds?" Other than asking them, there is no moral way to compel someone to testify if they do not want to speak. Jailing them repeatedly one question at a time is clearly abusive. edit - this isn't difficult ethically. Unless you construct some imminent scenario (puppy trapped down well, etc.), you are locking someone up purely to know more. They aren't themselves depriving you directly of anything other than their perspective on events.

IfOnlyYouKnew 7y ago
You're arguing against every law on the matter in any number of countries generally considered democratic, so I do believe that it isn't quite as easy, ethically, as you assert.
- maxheadroom 7y ago
  >Jailing them repeatedly one question at a time is clearly abusive. I believe this statement is where they tried to delineate between "a number of countries" and this instance but I'm not the OC, so I can't speak for them; however, that's the way that I'm reading it.
  - inflatableDodo 7y ago
    I possibly put it badly. I have no problem with courts questioning people or even the detainment for questioning (as long as it does not become a pattern of harrassment). What I am against is ongoing detention outside of what is neccesary for the purposes of attempting to ask someone questions. If they do not speak, then you have to keep asking, but you cannot ask all the time. Locking someone up, especially in solitary as it appears they have done in this case, as a punishment for not speaking, is pretty barbaric.
prepend 7y ago
Subpoena are considered moral, I think, because testimony is required for democratic society so that we don’t rely on hearsay. There are many situations where someone does not “want” to testify, but it is necessary to better understand the truth. If someone could just decline subpoenas then we would lost rule of law. I think it’s worth pointing out that there are checks on judges issuing subpoenas and it’s not done arbitrarily.
- chj 7y ago
  Sorry I have to ask, what are the checks on judges? What if you change judge every time?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - JumpCrisscross 7y ago
    > what are the checks on judges? Other judges. This is why appeals and petitions to higher courts exist.
    - megous 7y ago
      Worse problem for democracy is refusal of prosecutors to prosecute public officials even in cases of obvious miscarriage of their duties to the public (or lets say highly controversial acts with high casualty counts and largescale damage on property of other people - like going to arrest 4 people for parole violation and contempt of court,... and burning down the entire neighbourhood and killing 11 people). One egregious example is (today is the aniversary) 1985 bombing of MOVE: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,141842,00.html http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,141842,... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE What are the checks on refusal to prosecute? Are there even any? One might find it more apppealing to cooperate with a justice system that at least tries to do its job wrt people who police the public.
      - deleted 7y ago

IfOnlyYouKnew 7y ago

You're arguing against every law on the matter in any number of countries generally considered democratic, so I do believe that it isn't quite as easy, ethically, as you assert.

maxheadroom 7y ago
>Jailing them repeatedly one question at a time is clearly abusive. I believe this statement is where they tried to delineate between "a number of countries" and this instance but I'm not the OC, so I can't speak for them; however, that's the way that I'm reading it.
- inflatableDodo 7y ago
  I possibly put it badly. I have no problem with courts questioning people or even the detainment for questioning (as long as it does not become a pattern of harrassment). What I am against is ongoing detention outside of what is neccesary for the purposes of attempting to ask someone questions. If they do not speak, then you have to keep asking, but you cannot ask all the time. Locking someone up, especially in solitary as it appears they have done in this case, as a punishment for not speaking, is pretty barbaric.

prepend 7y ago

Subpoena are considered moral, I think, because testimony is required for democratic society so that we don’t rely on hearsay. There are many situations where someone does not “want” to testify, but it is necessary to better understand the truth. If someone could just decline subpoenas then we would lost rule of law. I think it’s worth pointing out that there are checks on judges issuing subpoenas and it’s not done arbitrarily.

chj 7y ago
Sorry I have to ask, what are the checks on judges? What if you change judge every time?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago
  > what are the checks on judges? Other judges. This is why appeals and petitions to higher courts exist.
  - megous 7y ago
    Worse problem for democracy is refusal of prosecutors to prosecute public officials even in cases of obvious miscarriage of their duties to the public (or lets say highly controversial acts with high casualty counts and largescale damage on property of other people - like going to arrest 4 people for parole violation and contempt of court,... and burning down the entire neighbourhood and killing 11 people). One egregious example is (today is the aniversary) 1985 bombing of MOVE: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,141842,00.html http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,141842,... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE What are the checks on refusal to prosecute? Are there even any? One might find it more apppealing to cooperate with a justice system that at least tries to do its job wrt people who police the public.
    - deleted 7y ago