Harvard Law Professors Urge Congress to Review Interrogation Policy

[anarchy1999]

Harvard Law Professors Urge Congress to Review Interrogation Policy and Hold Executive Branch Accountable


Post Date: June 16, 2004


A group of more than 450 professors of law, international relations, and public policy--led by Harvard Law School faculty members--today sent a letter calling on Congress to hold accountable, through impeachment and removal if appropriate, civilian officials from the top of the Executive Branch on down for policies developed at high levels that have facilitated the recent abuses at Abu Ghraib. The letter also calls on Congress to take primary responsibility for any policy on coercive interrogation employed by the United States.
In asking Congress to assess Executive Branch accountability, the letter says: "a growing body of evidence indicates that the abuses practiced on detainees under American control are the consequence of policies developed at the highest levels in the months and years immediately preceding the scandal." It argues that prosecution of lower level personnel "while necessary, is clearly insufficient."
In asking Congress to take responsibility for reviewing coercive interrogation policies and practices, the letter notes that "official U.S. policy now involves use of coercive methods that are morally questionable and that may violate international and domestic law." It further states: "....any decision to adopt a coercive interrogation policy and the definition of any such policy, if adopted, should be made within the strict confines of a democratic process.... asic principles and policies regarding human rights must be defined by a representative and accountable body acting in transparent and deliberative fashion."

skip to the end:

The letter has been signed by 56 law teachers at Harvard Law School, including former Dean Robert C. Clark, and Professors Laurence Tribe, Alan Dershowitz, Lani Guinier, Detlev Vagts and Frank Michelman. It has also been signed by leading experts on international relations, public policy and constitutional law across the nation, including Yale University Professor Bruce Ackerman; Professor Philip Alston, director of NYU's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice; Jose Alvarez, director of the Center on Global Legal Problems at Columbia Law School; Duke Law School Professor Paul Carrington; Georgetown Law School Professor David Cole; Princeton Professor Richard Falk; Columbia Law School Professor Jack Greenberg; Kennedy School of Government Professor Christopher Jencks; UCLA Law School Professor Kenneth Karst; Juliette Kayyem of the Kennedy School of Government; University of Texas Law School Professor Sanford Levinson; David Scheffer, former U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes issues; and Harvard University Professor William Julius Wilson.

The letter has also been signed by members of the Faculty of the Tufts University Fletcher School. It has been signed by a total of 481 members of university faculties across the nation, from more than 110 schools in 40 different states. It has been sent to all members of Congress and of the relevant Congressional committees.

The letter and the list of signers as of June 14 is available at www.iraq-letter.com.

For additional information please contact Harvard Law School Professors Christine Desan (617-495-4613 or [e-mail]), Henry Steiner (617-495-3107 or [e-mail]), Martha Minow ([e-mail]) or Elizabeth Bartholet (617-495-3128 or [e-mail]). Please note: Professor Bartholet will be unavailable from June 15-20.


Fair Use, okay Mods?

Sorry I went over the 3 or 4 paragraph rule this time.

[anarchy1999]

1. Kick up to the top.

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[anarchy1999]

2. Up again.

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