Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe · ¶120

Putting the terms “subjects” and “aiding and abetting” together yields a simple answer. In ordinary meaning, a person “subjects” another to torture if he “consciously and culpably ‘participate[s]’ in” the torture “so as to help ‘make it succeed.’” Ibid. Imagine an individual who rounds people up and delivers them to a black site to be tortured by another person. Or a company that sets up the torture chamber with all the necessary tools. Or an informant who provides sensitive information about the victim so that another person can tailor the torture to the victim’s weaknesses. None of these actors conducted the torture themselves, but they have all “subjected” those people to torture by “culpably ‘participat[ing]’ in” it and helping to “‘make it succeed.’” Ibid. Dictionary definitions reinforce this understanding. Dictionaries define “subjects” to mean “to cause to undergo or submit to”…

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