The College of Charleston’s Pre-Law Program is hosting a symposium on counterterrorism and the law, with a lecture by author and former Washington Post editorial writer Benjamin Wittes. This event celebrates Constitution Day, but also the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, by bringing in the author of some of the best-known books written for a broad audience that look at the legal questions raised by our government’s response.
“The Constitution and American Counterterrorism” will be held on Monday, September 12, 2011 from 7:15 to 9:00 p.m. in Physicians Memorial Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
Many important Constitutional provisions concern the way criminal suspects and defendants are treated. Wittes will discuss how long terrorism suspects can be held in detention before a hearing or a trial, what sort of hearings or trials they should have, what sorts of interrogation techniques can be used, what sorts of surveillance we are allowed to conduct.
“Wittes’ books are attempts to reconcile counterterrorism policy with the rule of law and the ideals of the Constitution,” says Larry Krasnoff, director of the Pre-Law Program. “Overall, I want students and members of the public to think about the things we value in the rule of law and in our Constitutional traditions, and to see that we still need to think through them again when new and difficult problems like terrorism arise.”
Benjamin Wittes is the author of four books, including two on the urgency of developing a legal framework for American counterterrorism policy: Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror and Detention and Denial: The Case for Candor after Guantanamo.
The symposium also includes a book discussion series on Law and the Long War, co-sponsored by the Charleston County Public Library on Wednesdays from August 31 to September 21 at the main branch of the library (68 Calhoun Street) from 2:00 to 3:15 p.m.
This event is sponsored by the First Year Experience program, the Office of the Academic Experience, Student Life, the Cougar Activities Board, the Student Government Association, the Honor Board, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Departments of Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology, and History, the Charleston County Public Library, and the Charleston School of Law.
This is the first in a series of pre-law events this semester on the rule of law, which is the theme of a first-year seminar taught by Krasnoff this fall, supported by a grant from the “Enduring Questions” program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. His was one of just 15 awards given nationwide. The “Enduring Questions” program encourages the development of courses on questions that have been debated for many centuries, and which can still be debated by people today, without any special disciplinary background.
For more information, contact Larry Krasnoff at 843.953.4987.
