Academic

Book Announcement: Legislating the War on Terror edited by Wittes

By Lawrence Solum

Legislating the War on Terror: An Agenda for Reform

WASHINGTON, D.C.?The attacks of 9/11 and subsequent American actions irrevocably changed the political, military and legal landscapes of U.S. national security. Terrorists threw out the old rules of war but the United States still has not decided on the new ones. Legislating the War on Terror reveals just how much work there is to be done and offers a fresh set of ideas for how to begin. It presents an agenda for reforming the statutory law governing this new battle, balancing the need for security, the rule of law and the constitutional rights that protect American freedom.

The chapters in Legislating the War on Terror are organized around the major tools that the United States has deployed against al Qaeda as well as the legal problems that have developed as a result. Those tools?detention, criminal process, surveillance, targeted strikes against terrorist leaders, interrogation, deportation and border control?have produced varying degrees of controversy. The book examines how Congress should authorize, regulate and limit their use and under what circumstances their use should be encouraged. It tackles some of the most challenging dilemmas that face Congress as it legislates the ground rules for this new era, such as how to close the Guantánamo Bay prison camp and whether to ban torture during interrogations of terrorist suspects.

Editor Benjamin Wittes, senior fellow and research director in public law at the Brookings Institution, leads an authoritative lineup of legal experts and current and former government officials. Although the authors represent diverse political points of view, they share the belief that Congress must play a significant role in shaping U.S. national security policy in response to terrorism. The contributors include David Kris, author of National Security Investigations and Prosecutions and assistant attorney general for the National Security Division; Jack Goldsmith, author of The Terror Presidency and former assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel; David Martin, now principal deputy general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security; Mark Gitenstein, former chief counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee and current Ambassador to Romania; Robert Litt, current general counsel to the Director of National Intelligence; Stuart Taylor Jr. of the Brookings Institution and the National Journal; and Matthew Waxman, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs.

The Editor

Benjamin Wittes is a Senior Fellow and Research Director in Public Law at the Brookings Institution. He is also author of Law and the Long War (Penguin, 2008). He served as an editorial writer for the Washington Post 1997?2006.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on December 02, 2009 (boomark / email).