Interesting articles

Beth van Schaack – International Criminal Law & its Enforcement
This chapter, to appear in the 2nd edition of Beth Van Schaack & Ron Slye’s International Criminal Law & Its Enforcement (Foundation Press 2010), covers the crime of torture under international criminal law. It begins with a doctrinal discussion of the elements of torture as elucidated [...]

Current wiretapping discussions in the US: the Patriot Act extensions, the Justice Bill and Leahy’s proposal

A US Department of Justice (DOJ) official told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that the Obama administration supports the reauthorization of two provisions of the USA Patriot Act and one provision of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 set to expire at the end of the year. Assistant Attorney General for National [...]

Divided Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Abu Ghraib Contractors

[JURIST] A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a lawsuit brought against private contractors by Iraqi plaintiffs alleging torture at the Abu Ghraib prison. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia  held that federal law concerning “combatant activities” preempted the state tort claims brought by the former detainees. Redefining the test set [...]

Ninth Circuit: Ashcroft not entitled to absolute and qualified immunity in Al-Kidd case

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that former attorney general John Ashcroft is not entitled to absolute and qualified immunity, allowing an unlawful detention lawsuit by US citizen Abdullah Al-Kidd to go forward. At the heart of the case is whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) policy of using the [...]

CIA abuses and accountability in the war on terror

Justice Department releases Helgerson report further detailing CIA abuses and tight control over them in ACLU FOIA suit
A court ordered the long-awaited release of the 2004 report by C.I.A Inspector General John L. Helgerson on the CIA’s interrogation techniques after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit of the ACLU. The IG’s report is the most [...]

Obama-backed bill worries FBI whistleblowers

Georgetown SLB reports that working with the administrationUS Congress is considering a new whistleblower-protection bill, and the protections afforded to national security and intelligence agency employees have emerged as a key sticking point. The White House sought changes in a Senate bill to strip existing rights for FBI whistleblowers despite Mr. Obama’s campaign promises to [...]

John Brennan on the US counterterrorism policy

Remarks by John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, As Prepared for Delivery “A New Approach to Safeguarding Americans, 6 August 2009. Read the speech here.
Interview with Brennan here. Comments in the LA Times and the WSJ.

2007 shield law doesn’t apply to law enforcemnt officers in airliner case

A shield law for those who report suspected terrorist activities does not apply to law enforcement, a judge ruled Friday in a discrimination lawsuit filed by six imams who were removed from a US Airways flight in 2006. A passenger had raised concerns about the imams – who were not sitting together – through a [...]

Council of Europe Commitee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights calls on Obama to hold perpetrators of torture accountable

Read the working document by Mrs. Herta Däubler-Gmelin for the Council of Europe’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, entitled: The state of human rights in Europe: the need to eradicate impunity here.
In passing she says the following on the release of the torture memo’s:
I should like to commend the new US President for [...]

Federal Insurance Co. v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

(Scotus) In No. 08-640, Federal Insurance Co. v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United States has filed a brief recommending that cert. be denied.  The case arises out of the September 11 attacks and alleges, inter alia, that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi High Commission for Relief to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and four [...]