Working my way through Torture and the Law of Proof. It's an account of the role of torture in European justice systems going back to medieval times. It starts at the end of the older system of trial by battle/ordeal where God would (presumably) decide the case and looks at the start of evidence-based trials.

It's interesting to see how torture "naturally" arose because the standards of evidence were so high--you couldn't be convicted except on the testimony of two witnesses or your own confession (note that a similar proviso is found in the US Constitution regarding treason). They came up with the idea of a half-proof, where a single witness or circumstantial evidence could be used to gain judicial permission to apply torture. The author notes that legal scholars of the day were very well aware of the possibility of false confessions and looks at the various methods used to attempt to minimize this and why they failed.

The main drawback for me is that the writing can be rather dry and academic.