Fabian Deckwirth Sep 16, 2010:

No problem... ... and I should have written that in the explanation field under my answer anyways.

Robert Feuerlein Sep 16, 2010:

With Fabian. In german it is "Etikettenschwindel" and also refers to any sort of fraud.

William Pairman (asker) Sep 16, 2010:

Sorry Fabian ...didn't see your discussion entry. Thats a fair point

I'm wondering if "false pretences" might fit the bill...

William Pairman (asker) Sep 16, 2010:

The text continues... Ninguna conmoción social, ningún inusitado recrudecimiento de delitos gravísimos autoriza la muerte como pena, porque la facultad implicaría un cambio indebido de Constitución en la comunidad, en ostensible atropello de su base personalista. Tampoco las guerras internacionales e intestinas pueden servir de justificación suficiente. La guerra no puede ostentar el privilegio de un espacio jurídicamente vacío; muy por el contrario, está sometida a límites jurídicos, y también para ella rige el principio de que lo fundamental es salvar al individuo y no manipularle so pretexto de preservar el todo.

It has been talking about whether or not the death penalty can be justified in exceptional circumstances (times of war, treason and so on).

I think its clear that we're not looking at normal labels and tickets here

Fabian Deckwirth Sep 16, 2010:

No, of course not. But you can label immaterial things as well, or even behavior, opinions etc. And since it is expressed metaphorically in the Spanish original, I would maintain the metaphor in the English translation.
Ex.: The "socialism" in "national-socialism" is false labeling.

William Pairman (asker) Sep 16, 2010:

I should have added... The context here is an academic discussion of the death penalty. I dont think "etiqueta" here refers to designer labels or even tickets in general as they are usually understood

eg:
http://books.google.es/books?id=_MOHKvvlPpkC&pg=PA115&lpg=PA...