‘TRIAL OF SADDAM’ CONFERENCE
AT UH TO EXAMINE DICTATOR’S LEGAL RIGHTS
International Law Experts to Consider Issues of Jurisdiction,
Due Process, Suing Saddam and Iraq
HOUSTON, Feb.8, 2005 – Following the high profile elections
in Iraq, the world now turns its attention to the next item on that
troubled country’s national agenda: the trial of Saddam Hussein.
Will the trial by the Iraqi Special Tribunal be lawful and fair?
What crimes can the former dictator be charged with? What will it
take to convict him and how will punishment be determined? And can
Saddam – or even Iraq itself – be sued in U.S. courts?
A panel of noted experts in international law – including
a State Department legal adviser – will explore these complex
issues during a two-part conference presented at the University
of Houston Law Center Feb. 25. The first portion of the program,
titled “The Trial of Saddam,” will focus on questions
of jurisdiction and concerns about due process, and the second,
“Suing Saddam and Iraq,” will address rights of action,
immunity and the execution of judgments.
Jordan J. Paust, UH Law Foundation Professor, will serve as moderator.
“International experts will address jurisdictional and due
process issues concerning what might be the trial of the century
with respect to alleged genocide, crimes against humanity and war
crimes, as well as issues concerning the right of former U.S. prisoners
of war and others to sue and collect judgments against Saddam Hussein,
as former head of state, and Iraq,” said Paust. “These
are issues raising concerns about accountability and an independent
judiciary in the United States.”
Paust has chaired the International Law Section of the Association
of American Law Schools and the Committee on International Law and
the Use of Force of the ABA. He has also served on the President’s
Committee and Executive Council of the American Society of International
Law (ASIL) and is currently co-chair of the ASIL's International
Criminal Law Interest Group.
Also participating in the conference will be:
Madeline Morris, Professor of law at Duke University
and Director of the Duke/Geneva Institute in Transnational Law.
She currently serves as Advisor to the Prosecutor, Special Court
for Sierra Leone, and directs the Duke Legal Clinic which provides
legal support to that court. Morris has provided consultation
to the U.S. State Department, Office of War Crimes Issues, and
served as Advisor on Justice to the President of Rwanda; Special
Consultant to the Secretary of the U.S. Army; Co-convenor of the
Inter-African Cooperation on Truth and Justice pro-gram; and Consultant
and Adjunct Faculty Member of the U.S. Naval Justice School.
Diane Marie Amann, Visiting Professor at the
UCLA School of Law and Professor at UC Davis School of Law. Professor
Amann’s scholarship examines the interaction of national,
regional, and international legal regimes at play in efforts to
combat atrocity and cross-border crime. She has been a Visiting
Professor at the Faculté de droit, Université de
Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne), and at the Irish Centre for
Human Rights. She serves as an expert for a comparative study
of military justice systems and for a project that is drafting
transitional criminal codes.
John Norton Moore, Walter L. Brown Professor
of law, Director of the Center for National Security Law and Director
of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy at the University of Virginia
School of Law. Professor Moore is an authority in the fields of
international law and national security law. During the Gulf War
and its aftermath, he was the principal legal adviser to the Ambassador
of Kuwait to the United States. He served as chair of the board
of directors of the U.S. Institute of Peace, one of six presidential
appointments he has held, and is a frequent witness before Congress
on the legal aspects of foreign policy, war and treaty powers,
and democracy and human rights. He has been a fellow of the Woodrow
Wilson International Center for Scholars.
David P. Stewart, Office of the Legal Adviser,
U.S. Department of State. He is the Assistant Legal Adviser for
Diplomatic Law and Litigation in the Office of the Legal Adviser
of the U.S. Department of State. Previously, he served as Assistant
Legal Adviser for Human Rights and Refugees, Law Enforcement and
Intelligence, and International Claims and Investment Disputes.
Stewart is a graduate of Yale Law School, and has advanced degrees
in international relations from New York University and the Yale
Graduate School. He is a member of the American Law Institute,
the Vice-Chair of the ABA’s Working Group on the Alien Tort
Claims Act, and teaches at Georgetown Law Center and Johns Hopkins
University.
The conference, which runs from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., will be held
in Krost Auditorium at the UH Law Center. A registration fee of
$75 is required. The event is free for UH faculty, staff and students.
For additional information, call 713-743-2201.
The conference has been designated as an official regional meeting
of the American Society of International Law and is co-sponsored
by the ASIL International Criminal Law Interest Group.
For more information about the UH Law Center, visit http://www.law.uh.edu/.
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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