Moderator
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Professor Robert Strassfeld Director, Institute for Global Security Law and Policy Case Western Reserve University School of Law |
Panelists
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Larry May, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy Vanderbilt University |
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Captain Keith Petty U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions |
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Professor Michael Newton Vanderbilt University Law School co-author, Enemy of the State |
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Professor Gregory McNeal Pennsylvania State University The Dickinson School of Law |
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Colonel (ret.) Morris D. Davis, USAF former Chief Prosecutor Office of Military Commissions |
Friday September 11, 2009
8:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m.
Moot Court Room
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
War Crimes Research Symposium
Presented by the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center
Co-sponsored by: Institute for Global Security Law and Policy, Inamori Center for International Ethics and Excellence, Public International Law and Policy Group, International Association of Penal Law, American Society of International Law, International Law Association – American Branch, American Bar Association – International Law Section, and The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage. Made possible by a grant from the Wolf Family Foundation.
In January 2009, President Obama signed an executive order banning torture and calling for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility within a year. Authorities must now decide what to do about the detainees at Guantanamo Bay as well as the former officials behind the torture policies and memos. In this unique day-long conference, two dozen of the world’s leading experts participating in four roundtable discussions will examine such questions as: Who must be released from U.S. detention? Where should they be sent? Where should the remaining detainees be held? What procedures should govern their continued detention? Which of the remaining detainees should face trial? What form of trial should be used? And should the architects of the U.S. torture policies and memos face justice?
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Additional Information About Our Guests…
Before joining the faculty in 1988, Robert Strassfeld clerked for Judge Harrison L. Winter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and then practiced for three years at the Washington, D.C. firm, Shea & Gardner. Mr. Strassfeld teaches Torts, Federal Courts, Labor Law, and Legal History. He has published articles on theoretical aspects of causation in the George Washington and Fordham law reviews and on law and the Vietnam War in the Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Duke law reviews. He is coauthor of Understanding Labor Law. His current research includes continuing work on the legal history of the Vietnam War and a history of African American lawyers in Cleveland
Lawrence May is Professorial Fellow, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University in Canberra, Australia. Professor May is a political philosopher who has worked on conceptual issues in collective and shared responsibility, as well as normative issues in international criminal law. He has also worked on professional ethics and the Just War tradition. Prof. May has a B.S. in international affairs from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research, where he was Hannah Arendt’s last research assistant. He also has a J.D. from Washington University. Prof. May has published 21 books and more than 80 articles. His writings have been translated into French, Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, Serbian, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.
He has recently published a series of books on international criminal law: Crimes Against Humanity: A Normative Account (Cambridge, 2005); War Crimes and Just War (Cambridge, 2007); Aggression and Crimes Against Peace (Cambridge 2008); and Genocide: A Normative Account (Cambridge, forthcoming 2009). These books have won awards in law, from the American Society of International Law, and the International Association of Penal Law, American Section, and also in philosophy, from the American Philosophical Association, and the North American Society for Social Philosophy, as well as two awards in the field of international relations from the American Library Association. He has just finished the penultimate draft of a book on Global Justice and Due
Captain Keith A. Petty is a prosecutor in the Office of Military Commissions, and is responsible for prosecuting High-Value Detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He is currently detailed to several active cases, most notably the pending trial United States v. Omar Khadr.
Previously, Captain Petty was a trial attorney in one of the busiest jurisdictions in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood, Texas. During his assignment to the 1st Cavalry Division, he deployed to Baghdad, Iraq for a year as a Command Judge Advocate, advising combatant commanders and soldiers on the law of war and rules of engagement. While in Iraq, he also served as a liaison to local government officials on rule of law initiatives, including preparing for Iraq’s first free elections in January 2005. Prior to his military service, Cpt. Petty was an adjunct assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he taught the War Crimes Prosecution Lab with Professor Michael P. Scharf. Cpt. Petty’s first experience with war crimes prosecutions was as an intern at the Trial Chambers of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
Cpt. Petty has published in the areas of national security law, international criminal law, and human rights. He received his LL.M. with distinction from Georgetown University Law Center. He earned his J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and his B.A. from Indiana University. Cpt. Petty is admitted to the Bar in the state of Illinois.
Before teaching at Vanderbilt, Michael Newton was Associate Professor of Law at the U.S. Military Academy. He has published more than 50 articles, editorials, and book chapters in journals such as, inter alia, The International Review of the Red Cross, Cornell International Law Journal, Connecticut Journal of International Law, Military Law Review, The Virginia Journal of International Law, and The Yearbook of International Peacekeeping. He co-authored Enemy of the State: The Trial and Execution of Saddam Hussein (2008 St. Martins Press).
At the Office of War Crimes Issues, U.S. Department of State, Professor Newton negotiated the Elements of Crimes document for the International Criminal Court. He assisted the establishment of the Iraqi High Tribunal, taught Iraqi jurists, and was an International Law Advisor to the Judicial Chambers. He was the U.S. representative on the U.N. Planning Mission for the Sierra Leone Special Court. A member of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law and the International Bar Association, he has made media appearances on CNN, BBC, Fox, Court TV, NPR, among others. He is on the American Society of International Law Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward the ICC, and was an appointed expert in support of the Task Force on Genocide Prevention established by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the U.S. Institute of Peace. Prof. Newton has supported the Public International Law & Policy Group advising governments across the globe. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point he was an armor officer until his selection for the Judge Advocate General’s Funded Legal Education Program. He earned more than two dozen military decorations during 21 years of service. Prof. Newton earned his J.D. and an L.LM. from the University of Virginia School of Law and is a member of the Virginia Bar. He also received an L.LM from the Judge Advocate General’s School, where he was Professor of International and Operational Law (1996-1999).
Gregory McNeal’s research employs organizational theory to analyze the institutions and challenges associated with counterterrorism, with a particular substantive focus on criminal law and procedure, national security law and international criminal law. His legal scholarship is published or is forthcoming in the Northwestern University Law Review, the Richmond Law Review, and the Depaul Law Review, among others. His books include Saddam on Trial (with Michael Scharf) and Counterterrorism Law Across Borders: Differing Perspectives on Rights and Security (with Amos Guiora).
Professor McNeal previously co-directed a transnational counterterrorism prosecution program between the U.S. Department of Justice and senior counterterrorism prosecutors in Europe. He also served as a consultant to the Chief Prosecutor for the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions. He is currently the editor of the widely read National Security Law Report, a publication of The American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Law and National Security. His nonacademic writing has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Times, and The Baltimore Sun. He frequently appears on national and international television and radio programs as an expert commentator on counterterrorism and international criminal law and has been quoted by The New York Times, The Associated Press, and other publications.
Morris Davis served as a judge advocate in the U.S. Air Force from October 1983 until he retired as a colonel in October 2008. From September 2005 until October 2007, he was the chief prosecutor for the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He led a multi-agency prosecution task force of more than 100 personnel from the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other federal agencies. For nearly two years he was one of the most visible and most vocal advocates for military commissions and for the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. He asked to resign from his position as chief prosecutor in October 2007, primarily because of his objection to the use of evidence obtained by some enhanced interrogation techniques. After his resignation was accepted, he became a vocal critic of torture and the politicization of the military commissions. His final assignment before retiring from the Air Force was as director of the Air Force Judiciary where he oversaw the Air Force criminal justice system and supervised nearly 265 people at sites around the world.
Col. Davis earned a BS in criminal justice from Appalachian State University, a JD from North Carolina Central University School of Law, a LLM in government procurement law from George Washington University, and a LLM in military law from the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General School. His military decorations include the Legion of Merit, six Meritorious Service Medals, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. He was included in the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington report, Those Who Dared: 30 Officials Who Stood Up for Our County. At the Congressional Research Service, he heads the Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division.