In the mid-nineteenth century the Ottoman Empire witnessed the emergence of an official criminal legal policy and procedures to preclude state officials from inflicting pain over civilians while executing their duties. In less than two decades, new penal codes and statutes clearly and explicitly banned state officials from resorting to infliction of pain against a civilian to exercise state authority, as method of criminal interrogation and as discretionary punishment. This book studies this historical case of criminal law transformation by focusing on the official Ottoman policy toward torture, explaining why this policy emerged at that moment and how it was implemented until the end of the Empire. While explaining this aspect of criminal law, the Ottoman criminal law system is clearly perceived as a system underwent a radical amendment hand in hand with the legal ban on torture. This gradual but drastic change of the philosophy of criminal law in the meaning and purpose of punishment shows finally a new global era of human dignity and respect with the increasing idea of personal sovereignty.
