Law Commons^™

Classification Of Participants In Suicide Attacks And The Implications Of This Classification On The Severity Of The Sentence: The Israeli Experience In The Military Courts In Judea And Samaria As A Model To Other Nations, Amit Preiss, Chagai D. Vinizky

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

How Not To Process Stateless Enemies: A Review Of Andrew Mccarthy's Willful Blindness: A Memoir Of The Jihad, Timothy Connors

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Spot Program: Hello Racial Profiling, Goodbye Fourth Amendment?, Deborah L. Meyer

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Efficacy Of The Obama Policies To Combat Al-Qa'eda, The Taliban, And Associated Forces--The First Year, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

The State Secrets Privilege In The Post-9/11 Era, Steven D. Schwinn

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutionality Of Torture In A Ticking-Bomb Scenario: History, Compelling Governmental Interests, And Supreme Court Precedents, Riddhi Dasgupta

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Legality, The Use Of Military Force, And Burdens Of Persuasion: Self-Defense, The Initiation Of Hostilities, And The Impact Of The Choice Between Two Evils On The Perception Of International Legitimacy, Geoffrey Corn, Dennis Gyllensporre

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Free Speech, Terrorism, And European Security: Defining And Defending The Political Community, Shawn Marie Boyne

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Nepa At The Limits Of Risk Assessment: Whether To Discuss A Potential Terrorist Attack On A Nuclear Power Plant Under The National Environment Policy Act, Michael Hill

Fordham Law Review

This Note explores the question of whether to address the environmental impacts of a potential terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit assert that the risk of terrorism is unquantifiable and too remote to warrant consideration under NEPA. In contrast, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concludes that the risk is foreseeable enough that it cannot be disregarded as a matter of law and that a qualitative discussion of a range of potential impacts is …

Attorney General Robert Jackson's Brief Encounter With The Notion Of Preclusive Presidential Power, William R. Casto

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Habeas Corpus In The Age Of Guantánamo, Cary Federman

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The purpose of the article is to examine the meaning of habeas corpus in the age of the war on terror and the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay. Since the war on terror was declared in 2001, the writ has been invoked from quarters not normally considered within the federal courts’ domain. In this article, I set out to do two things: first, I provide an overview of the writ’s history in the United States and explain its connection to federalism and unlawful executive detention. I then set out to bridge the two meanings of habeas corpus. Second, then, I …

Remodeling The Classified Information Procedures Act (Cipa), Afsheen John Radsan

Faculty Scholarship

The intelligence community and the law enforcement sector are supposed to be working closely to keep us all safe from terrorists and other dangers. The benefits of this cooperation should not be frittered away by unnecessary burdens in trying suspected terrorists in civilian courts. If the executive branch is to be kept away from the dark side of counterterrorism, the courts, Congress, or a combination of the two should modernize their approach to alignment, to Section 6 of Classified Information Procedures Act, and to closed portions of trials.

First, a prosecutor’s discovery obligations should apply to the intelligence community only …

American Punitive Damages Vs. Compensatory Damages In Promoting Enforcement In Democratic Nations Of Civil Judgments To Deter State-Sponsors Of Terrorism, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Faculty Articles

The primary consequence of the attacks on 9/11 on the U.S. was a fundamental legal shift in the approach that the U.S. has taken when confronting terrorism and the States that support them. The new challenge of the post 9/11 approach focused on ways to effectively combat not only terrorist organizations but also the States that sponsor them. This new thinking demands that Western democracies adopt an internationally based functional legal methodology that can deter rogue States from sponsoring terrorism.

Civil litigation against States that sponsor or support terrorism is a potential legal tool which could be used with great …

The Choice Of Law Against Terrorism, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

The Obama administration has continued to apply the wartime paradigm first developed by the Bush administration after 9/11 to respond to terrorism. In cases of trials before military commissions, indefinite detention, and targeted killing, the U.S. has continued to claim wartime privileges even with respect to persons and situations far from any battlefield. This article argues that both administrations have made a basic error in the choice of law. Wartime privileges may be claimed when armed conflict conditions prevail as defined by international law. These privileges are not triggered by declarations or policy preferences.

All Human Rights Are Equal, But Some Are More Equal Than Others: The Extraordinary Rendition Of A Terror Suspect In Italy, The Nato Sofa, And Human Rights, Eric Talbot Jensen, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

On November 4, 2009, an Italian court found a group of Italian military intelligence agents, operatives from the Central Intelligence Agency and a U.S. Air Force (USAF) officer guilty of the 2003 kidnapping of terror suspect Abu Omar. Thrown in a van on the streets of Milan, the abduction took Abu Omar from Italy to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured and interrogated about his role in recruiting fighters for extremist Islamic causes, including the insurgency in Iraq.

This essay posits that lost amidst politically charged rhetoric about Bush administration impunity and the “war on terror” is that the Italian …

John Brown's Constitution, Robert L. Tsai

Faculty Scholarship

It will surprise many Americans to learn that before John Brown and his men briefly captured Harper’s Ferry, they authored and ratified a Provisional Constitution. This deliberative act built upon the achievements of the group to establish a Free Kansas, during which time Brown penned an analogue to the Declaration of Independence. These acts of writing, coupled with Brown’s trial tactics after his arrest, cast doubts on claims that the man was a lunatic or on a suicide mission. Instead, they suggest that John Brown aimed to be a radical statesman, one who turned to extreme tactics but nevertheless remained …

Saving Lives Or Spreading Fear: The Terroristic Nature Of Eco-Extremism, Kevin R. Grubbs

Animal Law Review

Much debate has surfaced surrounding so-called “eco-terrorism.” Some commentators argue that such activity is not and should not be called terrorism. This Comment analyzes these extremist activities through the lens of federal terrorism laws and argues that, while these activists’ goals are laudable, their methods are often terroristic. Consequently, those activities that go too far are-and should be-classified as terrorism.

"Over-Kill": The Ramifications Of Applying New York's Anti-Terrorism Statute Too Broadly, Louis Jim

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

On October 31, 2007, a jury in Bronx County, New York convicted Edgar Morales, a gang member, of manslaughter in the first degree, attempted murder in the second degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and conspiracy in the second degree. Those convictions arose out of a shooting that occurred on August 18, 2002. That night, Mr. Morales and a group of his friends "showed up uninvited at a christening party at St. Paul's Lutheran Church" in New York City. Sometime that evening, "several people commandeered the disc jockey's microphone, and before long a fight broke …

John Brown's Constitution, Robert L. Tsai

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

It will surprise many Americans to learn that before John Brown and his men briefly captured Harper’s Ferry, they authored and ratified a Provisional Constitution. This deliberative act built upon the achievements of the group to establish a Free Kansas, during which time Brown penned an analogue to the Declaration of Independence. These acts of writing, coupled with Brown’s trial tactics after his arrest, cast doubts on claims that the man was a lunatic or on a suicide mission. Instead, they suggest that John Brown aimed to be a radical statesman, one who turned to extreme tactics but nevertheless remained …

Terrorism And The Law: Cases And Materials, Gregory E. Maggs

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Terrorism and the Law: Cases and Materials (2d ed. 2010) is a textbook written by Professor Gregory E. Maggs (of the George Washington University Law School) and published by West (ISBN-13: 9780314908582).

The textbook considers legal aspects of a broad range of methods that governments have for fighting terrorism, including criminal penalties, economic sanctions, immigration restrictions, military force, and civil liability. It addresses not just the steps taken in reaction to the 9/11 attacks, but also many other counterterrorism measures by the United States and other nations in recent years. To offer a global and comparative perspective, the materials include …

Terrorism And The Law: Cases And Materials, Gregory E. Maggs

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Terrorism and the Law: Cases and Materials (2d ed. 2010) is a textbook written by Professor Gregory E. Maggs (of the George Washington University Law School) and published by West (ISBN-13: 9780314908582).

The textbook considers legal aspects of a broad range of methods that governments have for fighting terrorism, including criminal penalties, economic sanctions, immigration restrictions, military force, and civil liability. It addresses not just the steps taken in reaction to the 9/11 attacks, but also many other counterterrorism measures by the United States and other nations in recent years. To offer a global and comparative perspective, the materials include …

Law Enforcement And Intelligence Gathering In Muslim And Immigrant Communities After 9/11, David A. Harris

Articles

Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, law enforcement agencies have actively sought partnerships with Muslim communities in the U.S. Consistent with community-based policing, these partnerships are designed to persuade members of these communities to share information about possible extremist activity. These cooperative efforts have borne fruit, resulting in important anti-terrorism prosecutions. But during the past several years, law enforcement has begun to use another tactic simultaneously: the FBI and some police departments have placed informants in mosques and other religious institutions to gather intelligence. The government justifies this by asserting that it must take a pro-active stance in order …

Comparative Perspectives On Specialized Trials For Terrorism, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

On the campaign trail in 2008, presidential candidate and then-Senator Barack Obama promised to restore America’s place in the world by breaking with many of the national security policies put into effect by President George W. Bush. In January 2009, President Obama made numerous changes to United States foreign policy, including signing an executive order to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and announcing that the United States would not engage in interrogation techniques that constitute torture. In some respects, however, Obama has followed the example of President Bush - for example, in his resuscitation of a specialized military …

Nuclear Containment For The Twenty-First Century; A Mandatory Nuclear Forensics Data Bank, Jack Garvey

Jack I Garvey

This article is a response to the challenge of nuclear non-proliferation for the 21st century. It describes the new landscape of nuclear risk and explains the role that the extraordinary developments in nuclear forensics science can play in generating an expansive deterrence to improve nuclear security by governments, and diminish the nuclear risk presented by terrorists and other non-state actors. Exploring the potential of nuclear forensics science, it provides the analysis to understand why that potential is not being realized. The article then proposes, as a practical and achievable foundation for a new and expansive deterrence, the establishment of an …

A Dark Descent Into Reality: Making The Case For An Objective Definition Of Torture, Michael W. Lewis

Michael W. Lewis

The definition of torture is broken. The malleability of the term “severe pain or suffering” at the heart of the definition has created a situation in which the world agrees on the words but cannot agree on their meaning. The “I know it when I see it” nature of the discussion of torture makes it clear that the definition is largely left to the eye of the beholder. This is particularly problematic when international law’s reliance on self-enforcement is considered. After discussing current common misconceptions about intelligence gathering and coercion that are common to all sides of the torture debate, …

Stop Taking The Bait: The Dilution Of Miranda Does Not Make America Safer From Terrorism, Ryan T. Williams

Ryan T. Williams

On December 25, 2009, a Nigerian tried to blow up a plane over Detroit, Michigan. On May 1, 2010, an American tried to set off explosives in New York's Times Square. Neither man succeeded. After both arrests, lawmakers clamored for more flexibility to interrogate terror suspects and for the suspension (if not elimination) of their Miranda rights. The Supreme Court subsequently decided three cases that severely dilute Miranda protections and Fifth Amendment rights. An examination of these decisions reveals that they fail to make America safer from terrorism.

Worse still, the dilution of American citizens' rights sends a dangerous message …

The U.N. Security Council Ad Hoc Rwanda Tribunal: International Justice, Or Judicially-Constructed “Victor’S Impunity”?, C. Peter Erlinder

C. Peter Erlinder

ABSTRACT The U.N. Security Council Ad Hoc Rwanda Tribunal: International Justice, or Juridically-Constructed “Victor’s Impunity”? Prof. Peter Erlinder [1] ________________________ “…if the Japanese had won the war, those of us who planned the fire-bombing of Tokyo would have been the war criminals….” [2] Robert S. McNamara, U.S. Secretary of State “…and so it goes…” [3] Billy Pilgrim (alter ego of an American prisoner of war, held in the cellar of a Dresden abattoir, who survived firebombing by his own troops, author Kurt Vonnegut Jr.) Introduction Unlike the postWW- II Tribunals, the U.N. Security Council tribunals for the former Yugoslavia [10] …