Jordan Paust is the Mike & Teresa Baker Law Center Professor at the University of Houston, a former U.S. Army JAG officer and member of the faculty of the Judge Advocate General's School. His book, Beyond the Law: The Bush Administration's Unlawful Responses in the "War" on Terror, was published by Cambridge University Press. Former Vice-President Dick Cheney is chatting about his role in assuring approval and use of manifestly unlawful interrogation tactics such as waterboarding during the eight-year Bush Administration. According to Cheney, he has "[n]o regrets" that he was directly involved in the approval of severe interrogation methods, including waterboarding, and he has admitted that he was involved in helping to get the process cleared by President Bush. "[T]his was a presidential decision," Cheney said, "and the decision went to the President. He signed off on it." (see here) On September 16, 2001, Cheney publicly declared that "[a] lot of what needs to be done ... ["on the dark side"] will have to be…
Human Rights
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Norm Conflicts and Human Rights
Consider the following scenario: the United Kingdom, together with the United States and other allies, invaded Iraq in 2003. From that point on, there was an international armed conflict between the UK and Iraq. Further, as it obtained effective control over certain parts of Iraqi territory, the UK became the occupying power of these territories. Under Art. 21 of the…
US Appeals Court holds that Former Foreign Officials Entitled to Immunity in Civil Suit alleging War Crimes
The Second Circuit of the US Court of Appeals has recently (April 16, 09) held in Matar v. Dichter that the former head of the Israeli General Security Service is immune in a civil suit brought under the US Aliens Tort Claims Act (28 USC § 1350) alleging war crimes and extrajudicial killing. The suit relates to Dichter's participation…
The Security Council and Human Rights: What is the role of Art. 103 of the Charter?
At last week's ASIL meeting there was a panel on whether the United Nations Security Council is bound by human rights law. The panelists (Vera Gowlland-Debbas, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Linos-Alexander Sicilianos, University of Athens & Gráinne de Búrca, Fordham University School of Law) discussed cases such as the Kadi decision of the European Court of Justice, Al…
European Court decides A and others v. United Kingdom
Today the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in A and others v. United Kingdom, App. No. 3455/05, the sequel to the Belmarsh case, [2005] UKHL 71, decided by the House of Lords several years ago. The applicants were detained preventatively as suspected terrorists by UK authorities pursuant to legislation passed by…