UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON LAW CENTER
HOUSTON JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

FIFTH ANNUAL LECTURE

Legal Policy In a Twilight War

featuring
Dr. Philip Zelikow
Executive Director, 9/11 Commission

THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2007

In arguing about the war on terror, lawyers on each side usually debate the reach and requirements of the law.  In the debate, and even in the government, the appropriate roles and expertise of lawyers, and the policymakers they advise, have become confused.  So it may be useful to concentrate on legal policy, analyzing what should be done, rather than just arguing about what can be done.  Informed by policy as well as legal experience, both as executive director of the 9/11 Commission and then as the principal subcabinet State Department policymaker for the war on terror, Zelikow discusses the challenge of applying a practical and moral approach to this long, twilight war.  He will outline the issues, the actual settings in which they arise, and sketch a possible emerging consensus.

Click here to download the text of the lecture.

Made possible in part by the generosity of James W. Skelton, Jr.