Blaine Sloan Lecture on International Law

MOST RECENT SLOAN LECTURE:

November 13, 2009 Sloan Lecture Scott Horton, Contributing Editor, Harper's Magazine, "After Gitmo: Obama Grapples with Preventive Detention"   >> View lecture video        >> View lecture photos

SYNOPSIS

"Preventive Detention and the Obama Administration." This fall the Obama Administration is expected to unveil its long anticipated proposal for a regime of preventive detention. Mr. Horton will review the proposal and test them:  first, against the stance adopted by the prior administration (to what extent does this reflect an evolution of the Bush era views, in light particularly of Obama's own criticism of those views), second, against international human rights standards--which impose limits on preventive detention but have never incorporated an outright prohibition of them, and third, against American constitutional standards.
 

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

Scott Horton is a Contributing Editor of Harper's Magazine where he writes the No Comment column on legal and national security issues. A New York attorney known for his work in emerging markets and international law, especially human rights law and the law of armed conflict, Horton lectures at Columbia Law School. A life-long human rights advocate, Scott served as counsel to Andrei Sakharov and Elena Bonner, among other activists in the former Soviet Union. He is a co-founder of the American University in Central Asia, and has been involved in some of the most significant foreign investment projects in the Central Eurasian region. Scott recently led a number of studies of abuse issues associated with the conduct of the war on terror for the New York City Bar Association, where he has chaired several committees, including, most recently, the Committee on International Law. He recently completed a study of the accountability of private security contractors in the war on terror, published as Private Security Contractors at War, and appeared and testified five times before Congress on this and related subjects. He is also a member of the board of the National Institute of Military Justice, the Andrei Sakharov Foundation, the EurasiaGroup and the American Branch of the International Law Association.
 

SLOAN LECTURE HISTORY

The Blaine Sloan Lecture on International Law honors F. Blaine Sloan, Professor Emeritus of International Law and Organization at Pace Law School, for developing the international law studies program at Pace. A member of the United Nations Legal Office for three decades and Director of the General Legal Division, Professor Sloan has contributed significantly to the development of private and public international law. He represented the Secretary General at the 1978 UN Conference on the Carriage of Goods by Sea; at the sessions from 1969–1978 of the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL); and at the 1966–1978 sessions of the Legal Sub-Committee on the Peaceful uses of Outer Space. His UN service involved him in that organization’s work on Vietnam, relief for Palestinian refugees, peacekeeping in the Middle East, the UN Commission on Korea, and as Legal Advisor to Security Council sessions in Africa and Latin America.

 

Past Lectures

	2009 Scott Horton Contributing Editor, Harper's Magazine "After Gitmo: Obama Grapples with Preventive Detention"
	2007 Mark D. Welton, PhD (Lt. Col., Ret.) Professor of Law, United States Military Academy, West Point "Islam, the West, and the Rule of Law"
	2006 José E. Alvarez Hamilton Fish Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, Columbia University School of Law "The Promise and Perils of International Organizations"
	2005  Philippe Kirsch President, International Criminal Court (ICC); and Judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Appeals Division "The International Criminal Court and the Enforcement of International Justice"
	2004 Barbara Stark Professor of Law, Hofstra University School of Law "Women and Globalization: A World of Change"
	2003 Michael Greenhalgh Bridge Professor of Commercial Law and Dean of the Faculty of Laws, University College London (UCL) "Uniformity and the Law of International Sale"
	2002 George J. Annas Edward R. Utley Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law Professor of Socio-Medical Sciences, Boston University School of Medicine Founder and first Director, Boston University's Law, Medicine, and Ethics Program "Human Rights and Health in a World of Inequality"
	2001 Harold G. Maier David Daniels Allen Professor of Law Emeritus, Vanderbilt University Law School  "The Cuban Democracy Act: Is the Cure Worse than the Disease?"
	2000 M. Cherif Bassiouni President Emeritus, International Human Rights Law Institute; and Distinguished Research Professor of Law, DePaul University College of Law President, International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences (ISISC), Siracusa, Italy "International Humanitarian Law"
	1999 David J. Scheffer Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law; and Director of the Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern University First U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues (1997–2001) "War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity"
	1998 W. Ramsey Clark Sixty-Sixth Attorney General of the United States "The Legality and the Effects of the United Nations Sanctions against Iraq"
	1993 Stephen M. Schwebel Judge, International Court of Justice (President from 1997–2000) "The Performance and Prospects for the International Court of Justice"
	1993 Shoshana Netanyahu Justice, Supreme Court of Israel "The Supreme Court of Israel: A Safeguard of The Rule of Law"
	1992 W. Michael Reisman Myres S. McDougal Professor of International Law, Yale Law School; Chairman, Hague Arbitration Tribunal, Bank for International Settlements International Election Observation
	1997 Benjamin B. Ferencz Chief Prosecutor for the United States Army, Einsatzgruppen Trial of the 'Subsequent Nuremberg Trials' at Nuremberg, Germany Adjunct Professor of International Law (1985-1996), Pace University School of Law "International Criminal Courts: The Legacy of Nuremberg"
	1996 Ronald St. John Macdonald, CC, QC Founding President, Canadian Council on International Law Judge, European Court of Human Rights Solidarity in International Public Law
	1995 Ian Brownlie, CBE, QC, FBA Chichele Professor of Public International Law, University of Oxford; and Distinguished Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford "The Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes in Practice"
	1994 David O'Keeffe Emeritus Professor of European Law, University of London (UCL) "The Constitutionalization of Europe and Legal Issues of the Maastricht Treaty"
	1991 Louis Henkin University Professor Emeritus and Special Service Professor, Columbia Law School; and chairman, Columbia University Center for the Study of Human Rights; former president, American Society of International Law "Congress, the President, and the United Nations"
	1990 John N. Hazard Nash Professor Emeritus of Law, Columbia Law School; President, International Academy of Comparative Law; President, American Foreign Law Association and of the American Branch of the International Law Association; Former president of the International Association of Legal Sciences "New Thinking in Soviet Approaches to International Politics and Law"
	1989 Oscar Schachter Hamilton Fish Professor Emeritus of International Law and Diplomacy, Columbia Law School; Advisor, UN Commission on Transnational Corporations  "Just War and Human Rights"
	1988 F. Blain Sloan Professor Emeritus of International Law and Organization, Pace Law School "The United Nations Charter as a Constitution"