Thanks to Legal Theory Blog and Opinio Juris

... for publicizing the Monday, April 10 conference on "Institutionalizing the War on Terror Through Legislation?" And now I see, alas, that it is going head to head with a meeting at Georgetown on roughly the same subject. And I had actually checked with different law schools in DC before scheduling this date!

Georgetown, as always, has splendid folks on its program - BUT (shameless advertisement) would you really want to miss Brad Berenson and David Rivkin squaring off on executive power with WCL's own Jamin Raskin and Amanda Frost? With Ben Wittes of the Washington Post and Dan Marcus formerly of the 9-11 Commission providing wise interpolation? Etc. Here, to reiterate, is the program:

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American University Washington College of Law &
The Hoover Institution, Stanford University
present

Institutionalizing the War on Terror Through Congressional Legislation


Monday, April 10, 8:30 am - 2:00 pm, including lunch
American University Washington College of Law, 4801 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

The Bush administration and many others have declared that the war on terror is a long term effort that will outlast any particular presidential administration and in some ways resembles the combined military and ideological struggle of the Cold War. In the long term war on terror, is it possible to conduct it by relying primarily on the power and authority of the executive branch, or does the long term struggle require that Congress institutionalize it through legislation? Three panels in this one day conference will consider ways in which the war on terror should be institutionalized for the long term through congressional legislation, rather than relying primarily upon executive authority. The first panel will debate the question of whether the war on terror should be legislated - it debates the fundamental premise of legislative action underlying the other two panels. The second panel considers some of the most incendiary questions in the war on terror - how to legislate legal rules for detention, rendition, interrogation, and what crosses the legal line into torture. The third panel considers what rules should be set for the use of force that does not rise to the legal definition of armed conflict, but is arguably not simply criminal law enforcement, either - should there be such a category of force at all, and if so, what should the legal rules be?

8:30-9:00 Registration and Coffee

9:00-9:15 Opening Comments – Kenneth Anderson

9:15-10:30 Discussion 1: Executive Power versus Congressional Legislation in the War on Terror

Presenters: Bradford Berenson; Amanda Frost; Jamin Raskin; David Rivkin; Ruth Wedgwood; Benjamin Wittes. Moderator: Daniel Marcus

10:45-12:00 Discussion 2: Standards for Detention/ Rendition/ Interrogation/ Defining Torture
Presenters: Kenneth Anderson; Lee Casey; Jennifer Daskal; Andrew McCarthy; Matthew Waxman; Ruth Wedgwood. Moderator: Tod Lindberg

12:00-12:30 Buffet Lunch

12:30-1:45 Discussion 3: Standards for Use of Force Legally Short of War

Presenters: Lee Casey; Lee Feinstein; Andrew McCarthy; Laura Olson; Matthew Waxman. Moderator: Kenneth Anderson

Participants:

Kenneth Anderson, professor, WCL, and a research fellow of the Hoover Institution; Bradford Berenson, partner at Sidley & Austin, from 2001-2003 Associate Counsel to the President; Lee Casey, a lawyer formerly with the Justice Department under the Reagan and first Bush administrations; Jennifer Daskal, United States advocacy director for Human Rights Watch; Lee Feinstein, senior fellow for US foreign policy and international law with the Council on Foreign Relations; Amanda Frost, professor, WCL; Tod Lindberg, editor of Policy Review and a research fellow of the Hoover Institution; Andrew McCarthy, senior fellow of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; Daniel Marcus, professor, WCL, served as counsel to the 9-11 Commission; Laura Olson, legal advisor to the International Committee of the Red Cross; Jamin Raskin, professor, WCL; David Rivkin, a lawyer formerly in the Justice Department under the Reagan and first Bush administrations; Matthew Waxman, deputy director of the Office of Policy Planning, US State Department, and formerly responsible for detainee affairs in the Department of Defense; Ruth Wedgwood, professor, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; Benjamin Wittes, an editorial writer with the Washington Post.

For More Information and to register, please Contact the Office of Special Events & CLE at 202.274.4075 or secle@wcl.american.edu or register online at www.wcl.american.edu/secle/cle_form.cfm.