Ends & Means in War Crimes Trials

In the hazy early hours of July 30, a special U.N. flight touched down at Rotterdam airport, bringing the former leader of Bosnia’s wartime Serb government, Radovan Karadži?, to stand trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, or ICTY, in The Hague. At the same time, proceedings More…

Boumediene: Victory of Law

The Supreme Court’s decision in Boumediene v. Bush – available with supporting material here is a curious blend of exasperation at executive branch hypocrisy and judicial hesitation to push too hard at the bar of justice. The result is a certain victory for the rule of law — but More…

Guantanamo Trial Unraveling

The war crimes trial of the alleged child soldier Omar Khadr at Guantánamo has new problems.

I wrote last week about the Canadian Supreme Court’s astute judgment about the case. Now the U.S. proceedings themselves seem to be unraveling.

Last week, the chief judge for the military commissions announced More…

Can Canada Sway SCOTUS?

At the end of June, the Supreme Court is due to issue a ruling on the challenge filed by Guantánamo detainees to their detention and the denial of habeas corpus. All the current presidential candidates, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, have discussed their intention More…

Habeas Case Quietly Heads to Supreme Court

This week, the solicitor general will file an appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court on a little-watched case from Guantánamo. But this case demands attention because it presents in stark relief the two key questions of the government’s extraterritorial detentions: Has the government been lying when it claims to have More…

Padilla Case Finds a Justice System Failing to Adapt

Six years after 9/11, the jury is still out on whether the American justice system is up to the challenge of dealing with terrorism.

The persistent debate about water-boarding — which Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey’s Senate testimony on Wednesday leaves no clearer — and the continual problem that is More…