Law Commons^™

Strengthening Security And Oversight At Biological Research Laboratories, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

With the advent of the Anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001, this Nation has been confronted with a serious policy conundrum. On the one hand, we have strengthened programs that encourage the use of our best scientific resources to develop countermeasures to the weaponization of highly dangerous biopathogens. On the other hand, research on those countermeasures requires the use of the very biopathogens we seek to defeat. There have been many mishaps in the handling of those pathogens, which raises the frightening prospect that the research may be as (or more) dangerous than the potential bioterrorist acts themselves. Indeed, …

Indefinite Material Witness Detention Without Probable Cause: Thinking Outside The Fourth Amendment, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

A constitutional issue recently addressed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in United States v. Awadallah, 349 F.3d 42 (2003), has not received the widespread attention of high-profile litigation concerning the Justice Department's other controversial counter-terrorism policies. It is equally important. The issue arises out of Attorney General Ashcroft's announcement shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 that the aggressive detention of material witnesses [was] vital to preventing, disrupting or delaying new attacks. Since that time, the Department of Justice has used the federal material witness statute (18 U.S.C. Section 3144) to arrest …

Project Bioshield: Linking Bioterrorism Threats And Countermeasure Procurement To Enhance Terrorism Preparedness, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

No abstract provided.

Blood Libel: Radical Islam’S Conscription Of The Law Of Defamation Into A Legal Jihad Against The West—And How To Stop It, Robert A. Pate

Robert A Pate

On May 19th, 2009, a panel of distinguished legal professionals assembled in Washington, D.C. at a conference, entitled Libel Lawfare: Silencing Criticism of Radical Islam, to discuss radical Islam’s exploitation of Western libel laws to silence authors and journalists who seek to expose terror-financing networks and criticize radical Islam. The debate also embodied a cresting wave of public concern about the surprising ways Western laws enable this assault.This paper seeks to call attention to two critical mistakes, which were perpetuated by panelists at the conference and which are consistently present in current libel lawfare scholarship. Foremost, no one has yet …

In Search Of Justice: Increasing The Risk Of Business With State Sponsors Of Terror, Gabriel C. Lajeunesse

Gabriel C. Lajeunesse

If the aims of tort law are deterrence, compensation, and provision of equitable distribution of risks, U.S. anti-terrorism laws have been marginally effective at best. Though Congress has passed legislation providing causes of action to U.S. victims of terrorism, compensation of victims is often difficult and terrorists are rarely deterred. Attempts to provide such recourse include the Antiterrorism Act of 1991 (“ATA”), the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”), and the Flatow Amendment to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”). These attempts, however, are not enough. Until international banks and insurers realize the potential risk of doing …

Securing Our Infrastructure: Private/Public Information Sharing, Rena Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

The Gaza War Of 2009: Applying International Humanitarian Law To Israel And Hamas, Justus Reid Weiner, Avi Bell

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article explores the many international legal issues raised by the Palestinian-Israeli tension along Gaza's borders. It first examines legal issues raised by Palestinian conduct and then turns to legal issues raised by Israeli conduct. As will be demonstrated, criticisms of Israeli behavior ... lack any basis in international law. By contrast, Palestinian behaviors that are rarely criticized constitute severe violations of international law.

An Overview Of Tolls To Statutes Of Limitations On Account Of War: Are They Current And Relevant In The Post-September 11th Era?, Hon. Mark Dillon

Hon. Mark C. Dillon

The devastation of the attacks that occurred at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 included costly disruption to the operation of courts in the City and State of New York. A court facility at Five World Trade Center was destroyed. Attorneys were among the 2,752 persons killed in the event. Law offices were destroyed. Key litigation witnesses and documents were lost forever. Thousands of attorneys were unable to access their work for days. State courts in Manhattan did not reopen for business until September 17, 2001. Amidst the turmoil and confusion, there was a defined set of potential …

Strengthening Security And Oversight At Biological Research Laboratories, Michael Greenberger

Congressional Testimony

With the advent of the Anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001, this Nation has been confronted with a serious policy conundrum. On the one hand, we have strengthened programs that encourage the use of our best scientific resources to develop countermeasures to the weaponization of highly dangerous biopathogens. On the other hand, research on those countermeasures requires the use of the very biopathogens we seek to defeat. There have been many mishaps in the handling of those pathogens, which raises the frightening prospect that the research may be as (or more) dangerous than the potential bioterrorist acts themselves. Indeed, …

Community Policing Within A Counter-Terrorism Context: The Role Of Trust When Working With Muslim Communities To Prevent Terror Crime, Basia Spalek

basia spalek

Recently, community-based models of policing have gained increasing prominence within the context of counter-terrorism, an area that has traditionally been dominated by ‘hard’, top-down models of policing. The following article draws upon a research study that examined community policing within a counter-terrorism context within the UK in order to help shed light upon how police officers might work with communities in order to prevent terror crime. The article focuses in particular upon the notion of trust within a counter-terrorism context and reflects upon the importance of cultural intelligence for policing within a counter-terror context, a context marked by suspicion, distrust …

Narco-Terrorism: Could The Legislative And Prosecutorial Responses Threaten Our Civil Liberties?, John E. Thomas, Jr.

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Norm Internalization Through Trials For Violations Of International Law: Four Conditions For Success And Their Application To Trials Of Detainees At Guantanamo Bay, Vijay M. Padmanabhan

Vijay M Padmanabhan

Norm internalization is an objective for trials for violations of international law, which seeks to use the trial to demonstrate to a target audience, usually the community of the defendant, the costs of violating international law, and the stigma of being a violator. The purpose of this exercise is to internalize in that audience a respect for international law and for the norm in question that drives the audience not to repeat the violation in the future. Some scholars have argued that this purpose should be the primary purpose behind international criminal trials. Others have argued that it should, at …

Afghanistan And The Nature Of Conflict, Charles Garraway

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Terrorism Risk In A Post-9/11 Economy: The Convergence Of Capital Markets, Insurance, And Government Action, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

September 11 changed the American economy and the global insurance market. The insurance industry no longer covers terrorism risk for "free." The traditional insurance mechanism alone cannot spread the risk of repeated catastrophic losses. Beyond the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 lingers the questions of a longterm solution and government's role therein. Government can assume different roles: reinsurer, wealth (re)distributor, regulator, or a combination thereof. This article suggests that the government should foster a regulatory and tax environment in which the private sector can develop a capital market solution for terrorism risk. Securitization is an alternative to reinsurance and …

Insurance For Acts Of Terrorism, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

This chapter discusses insurance case law arising from acts of terrorism, including those arising from the September 11 attacks. It analyzes the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA), as amended by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2005 and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007, as well as the administrative program created by the legislation. Examples are provided and NAIC Policyholder Disclosure Notice forms are included. Policy considerations surrounding TRIA are also discussed including insurance industry strategies, the difficulties of assessing terrorism risks, the effect of TRIA subsidized insurance on the market, and the benefits and …

Catastrophic Loss, Alternative Risk Transfer, And Terrorism Insurance, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

This paper constitutes a compilation of summary entries on catastrophic loss, alternative risk transfer, and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Extension Act of 2005, along with references and further reading.

Francis Gates V. Syrian Arab Republic, 2008 Wl 4367284 (D.D.C. 2008), Gabriel C. Lajeunesse

Gabriel C. Lajeunesse

On September 26, 2008, Judge Rosemary M. Collyer, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, handed down a judgment for over $400 million to the survivors of Jack Armstrong or Jack Hensley, two American contractors brutally murdered by al-Qa’ida in Iraq (AQI). The judgment was rendered against the Government of Syria—held liable for the murders in a federal cause of action under the recently amended Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) for Syria’s material support to AQI.

Targeted Killing In U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy And Law, Kenneth Anderson

Working Papers

Targeted killing, particularly through the use of missiles fired from Predator drone aircraft, has become an important, and internationally controversial, part of the US war against al Qaeda in Pakistan and other places. The Obama administration, both during the campaign and in its first months in office, has publicly embraced the strategy as a form of counterterrorism. This paper argues, however, that unless the Obama administration takes careful and assertive legal steps to protect it, targeted killing using remote platforms such as drone aircraft will take on greater strategic salience precisely as the Obama administration allows the legal space for …

Peace Is Not The Absence Of Conflict, But The Presence Of Justice, Reid C. Pixler

Northern Illinois University Law Review

An issue seldom, if ever, addressed regarding the conflict in Iraq is the role of the Iraqi criminal justice system in addressing acts of terrorism. The figures of "detainees" or "enemy combatants" held by the United States have been widely published, but little comment has been made regarding the challenges facing a small judicial system attempting to function in a war zone. Most of the judges assigned to the major crimes courts live in the same community where the court is located and have modest, if any, special security for their families. This short account details the conflict between the …

Countering Iranian Malign Influence: The Need For A Regional Response, Gabriel C. Lajeunesse, William Wunderle

Gabriel C. Lajeunesse

Abstract: The behavior and the policies pursued by Iran ’ s current leadership pose profound and wide-ranging challenges to U.S. interests, the interests of its friends and allies, and the international community as a whole. Particularly concerning is Iran ’ s ability to foment instability through the use of terrorism. Recognizing this, the authors participated in a series of roundtables, discussions, and forums on Iranian Malign Influence. Participants included military and civilian experts from a number of Middle Eastern, European, and Central Asian countries, U.S. think tanks, and U.S. intelligence and interagency subject matter experts. This paper is a reflection …

The Original Understandings Of The Capture Clause, Aaron D. Simowitz

Aaron D. Simowitz

The Congress shall have power to . . . To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water. US Const Art I, § 8, cl 11.

Although the Capture Clause may seem obscure today, the power it embodies was crucially important to the early republic. General Washington declared, even during the Revolutionary War, that a centralized and standardized system for the handling of prizes was vital to the war effort. The first court established by the fledging federal government was the federal appellate court of prize. This court heard over a …

Policy Options For The Obama Administration: The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act As A Tool Against State Sponsors Of Terrorism, Steve Perles, Gabriel C. Lajeunesse

Gabriel C. Lajeunesse

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, as amended in 2008, may provide an exploitable policy lever for the Obama administration as it seeks to deal with threats posed by state sponsors of terror such as Iran and Syria. Supporting private causes of action by victims of terror is both just and good policy.

The Perilous Dialogue, Laura K. Donohue

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The master metaphor in the national security dialogue is, indeed, “security or freedom”. It dominates the counterterrorist discourse both in the United States and abroad. Transcripts from debates in Ireland’s Dáil Éireann, Turkey’s Büyük Millet Meclisi, and Australia’s Parliament are filled with reference to the need to weigh the value of liberty against the threat posed by terrorism. Perhaps nowhere is this more pronounced than in the United Kingdom, where, for decades, counterterrorist debates have turned on this framing. Owing in part, though, to different constitutional structures, what “security or freedom” means in America differs from what it means in …

The Case Against National Security Courts, Stephen I. Vladeck

Stephen I. Vladeck

Since September 11, calls for a hybrid national security court to handle special terrorism cases have taken on a new-found prominence, as courts and policymakers alike have struggled with the complex series of legal and logistical problems posed by the U.S. government's detention of enemy combatants, especially the hundreds of non-citizens so detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. National security courts are, for many, an increasingly attractive compromise solution to the seemingly irreconcilable division between those who believe that terrorism suspects are not entitled to the traditional criminal process and those who believe not only that they are, but that any …

Prevention Or Pretext: The Designation Of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, Syed Ali M. Jafri

Syed Ali M. Jafri

This paper examines whether the “Foreign Terrorist Organization” & “Specially Designated Foreign Terrorists” designations are applied in a consistent manner. The author concludes that the designations are applied inconsistently and are used in the post September 11th era as a tool not only against legitimate terrorist targets, but also against the ideological opponents of United States foreign policy. Specifically the designations are used against Islamic based political movements. The pre-textual use of terrorist designations against ideological opponents weakens the United States position in the battle against terrorism, and undermines their legitimate security concerns. The current application of the designation schemes …

The Long War, The Federal Courts, And The Necessity / Legality Paradox, Stephen I. Vladeck

Book Reviews

This paper is a solicited review of Ben Wittes's book "Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror," which rightly suggests that there would be far less legal uncertainty today vis-a-vis the conduct of the war on terrorism had the Bush Administration sought - and had Congress provided - framework legislation governing issues ranging from the detention of "enemy combatants" to surveillance and even interrogation.

Nevertheless, the review takes issue with Wittes's critique of the role of the courts thus far, especially his contention that the Supreme Court's decisions to date may be seen …

Homeland Security And Terrorism In Selected European States, Eric M. Deutcher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the responses to terrorism increased throughout the world. The face of Homeland Security is now heavily focused on the prevention, preparedness, response and recovery of terrorist attacks not only in the United States, but also amongst some of America's oldest allies. This thesis studies the level of change in homeland security strategy of European NATO members after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. The analysis of strategic components within each NATO member's homeland security strategy (history, laws, counterterrorism agencies and budget support) shows significant change. The international community's …

Combatants And The Combat Zone, Mary Ellen O'Connell

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Extraordinary Rendition: A Wrong Without A Right, Robert Johnson

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fighting With Faith: The Role Of Religion In Dealing With Modern Conflict, Sean P. Mcdonnell

Sean P. McDonnell

Though current modes of cultural and ethnic asymmetrical conflict may seem novel, they universally draw on something far older and far more ingrained in man’s ancient roots: his faith in and relationship with the divine. Perhaps uniquely among cultural factors, religion is a single consistent issue latent in almost all contemporary intractable conflicts. If properly deployed, the symbols, language, and meanings of religious traditions may prove as powerful in resolving conflict as they have been in fueling it. How can those interested in healing these wide cultural schisms employ the power of religion in a restorative resolution process? This essay …