Marking the ten-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, the 27-member editorial board of the Elon Law Review welcomed law scholars and criminal law enforcement experts from across the country on Oct. 21 to participate in a symposium titled, "Terrorism's Impact on Criminal Justice: How the Detection, Investigation, and Prosecution of Criminal Activity Has Changed Since 9/11."
“The September 11th attacks have unquestionably left an indelible mark on our government and society,” said James R. Grant ’12, editor-in-chief of the Elon Law Review. “This effect is no more evident than in the changes that have taken place in our criminal justice system in the last decade. Through their engaging presentations, our guests raised awareness and enriched our understanding of some of those changes, and hopefully stimulated reflection on their efficacy.”
Panelists at the symposium included:
The Honorable V. Stuart Couch, Immigration Judge, Charlotte Immigration Court. Couch is a former senior prosecutor in the U.S. Marine Corps Office of Military Commissions who conducted criminal proceedings against selected detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He was lead counsel in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, and liaison to the Department of Justice and Solicitor General in support of the U.S. Supreme Court litigation of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, a landmark case involving separation of powers and Presidential authority during wartime. Couch was later featured in The Wall Street Journal about his decision not to prosecute a Guantánamo detainee because of his concerns that the man had been subject to torture. As a result of his actions, he was awarded the American Bar Association’s 2007 Norm Maleng “Minister of Justice” Award, and the German Bar Association’s 2009 “Pro Reo” Award in Berlin.
Arnold Loewy, George R. Killam Jr. Chair of Criminal Law, Texas Tech School of Law;
Tim Lynch, Director of the Project on Criminal Justice at the Cato Institute;
Everette Penn, Associate Professor of Criminology, University of Houston-Clear Lake;
Keith Petty, U.S. Army JAG Corps, legal advisor to the Commanding General, 5th Signal Command. Petty served as a prosecutor in the Office of Military Commissions, responsible for the trial of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Previously deployed to Baghdad, Iraq as a Brigade Judge Advocate, Petty advised combatant commanders and soldiers on the law of war and rules of engagement. He has published in the areas of national security and international criminal law. His research also focuses on human rights and counterterrorism.
Michael Rich, Assistant Professor of Law, Elon University School of Law;
Julian Sanchez, Research Fellow at the Cato Institute;
Tung Yin, Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Law School.
The symposium was organized into the following three panels:
- Prosecution: How the prosecution of crime has changed with the use of social media, immigration proceedings, and military tribunals
- Civil Liberties: How the war on terror has affected civil liberties in post 9/11 America
- Investigation: How judicial and legislative interpretation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendment have changed
The law review will publish articles derived from most presentations at the symposium in Volume IV of the Elon Law Review. Those articles will be made available after publication at the Elon Law Review website.
The editors of the Elon Law Review will also publish articles derived from a Nov. 4, 2011 forum exploring the life and legacy of Albion Tourgée, 1865-1905. That forum was presented in Raleigh, N.C. in partnership with the UNC Center for the Study of the American South, UNC School of Law, the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, and the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law. Click here for details about that forum.
Click here for a report on the Elon Law Review’s most recent publication, examining engaged learning in legal education.