April 2009 - Posts

• The 'Torture Memos': Learning That Ends Do Not Justify Means

  Posted Tuesday, April 28, 2009 12:35 PM from JURIST - Forum Comment Here: (Comments Off) JURIST Guest Columnists Victor Hansen and Lawrence Friedman of New England School of Law say that if we learn nothing else from recent disclosures about the Bush administration's use of harsh interrogation techniques on terrorism detainees, we must come Read More...

• The Second Bybee Memo: A Smoking Gun

  Posted Wednesday, April 22, 2009 3:41 PM from JURIST - Forum Comment Here: (Comments Off) JURIST Contributing Editor Jordan Paust of the University of Houston Law Center says that far from providing real legal cover for CIA harsh interrogations, the newly disclosed second Bybee memo is a "smoking gun" providing further evidence of serial criminality Read More...

• Not the Better Part of Valor: Obama's Duty to Prosecute Torturers

  Posted Wednesday, April 22, 2009 3:17 PM from JURIST - Forum Comment Here: (Comments Off) JURIST Contributing Editor Marjorie Cohn of Thomas Jefferson School of Law says that President Obama's expressed intent to immunize CIA employees who violated US laws banning torture and cruel treatment while interrogating prisoners breaches the President’s Read More...

• The Obama Lobbying Directive: Steps in the Right Direction

  Posted Friday, April 10, 2009 9:30 AM from JURIST - Forum Comment Here: (Comments Off) JURIST Guest Columnist William Luneburg of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says the Obama administration's restrictive new lobbying directive cannot altogether eliminate the phenomenon of "influence peddling" nor can it change Washington culture Read More...

• America's Moment of Truth on Torture

  Posted Wednesday, April 08, 2009 2:47 PM from JURIST - Forum Comment Here: (Comments Off) JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin Davis of the University of Toledo College of Law says that three memos written by the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush administration authorizing specific interrogation techniques amounting to torture need to be Read More...

• The US and the UN Human Rights Council: No Instant Gratification

  Posted Tuesday, April 07, 2009 11:18 AM from JURIST - Forum Comment Here: (Comments Off) JURIST Special Guest Columnist Noah Bialostozky of White & Case LLP says that while the US may help make the UN Human Rights Council a more meaningful forum for constructive, diplomatic engagement on human rights issues if it is elected to a seat in May, Read More...

• America's Role in Protecting the Right to Water

  Posted Wednesday, April 01, 2009 4:01 PM from JURIST - Forum Comment Here: (Comments Off) JURIST Special Guest Columnist Amanda Klasing of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights says that access to water and sanitation is a fundamental human right of all people, and that right must be promoted by the United States within Read More...