ABSTRACT
A cursory look at the history of lie detection and torture practices might also suggest a narrative of enlightenment, a gradual improvement in our civility, journeying from the bloodied scaffold of medieval public spectacles to the pristine white surfaces of the brain scanner. In tracing just some of the key points in the existing literature on the history of torture, the jury and lie detection the chapter outlines the important continuities as well as discontinuities in the conceptualisation of the body at the nexus of science and law. Medieval torture was conducted strategically, as part of shifting practices of knowledge production, law and government. Torture and science, confession and revelation were and remain deeply entangled in efforts to govern ourselves. In addition, various shifts in the laws of proof following the abolition of trial by ordeal had rendered the jury trial more capable of resolving criminal disputes.
