Beyond the Law: The Bush Administration's Unlawful Responses in the "War" on Terror

Provides a detailed exposition of violations of international law authorized and abetted by secret memos, authorizations and orders of the Bush administration. It describes why several executive claims were in error, what illegal authorizations were given, what illegal interrogation tactics were approved, and what illegal transfers and secret detentions occurred. It offers the most thorough documentation of cases demonstrating that the President is bound by the laws of war; that decisions to detain persons, decide their status, and mistreat them are subject to judicial review during the war; and that the commander-in-chief power is subject to restraints by Congress. Special military commissions contemplated by President Bush are analyzed along with the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan concerning their illegal structure and procedures, as well as problems created by the 2006 Military Commission Act.

Table of Contents:
1. Executive plans and authorizations to violate international law concerning treatment and interrogation of detainees; 2. Additional revelations concerning treatment, secret detentions, and secret renditions; 3. War and enemy status; 4. Judicial power to determine the status and rights of persons detained without trial; 5. Executive claims to unchecked power; 6. Antiterrorism military commissions.

About the Author :
Jordan J. Paust is the Mike and Teresa Baker Law Center Professor of International Law at the Law Center of the University of Houston. He received an A.B. and a J.D. from UCLA, an LL.M. from the University of Virginia, and is a J.S.D. Candidate at Yale University. Professor Paust has also been a Visiting Edward Ball Eminent Scholar University Chair in International Law at Florida State University, a Fulbright Professor at the University of Salzburg, Austria, and a member of the faculty of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's School, International Law Division. He has served on several committees on international law, human rights, laws of war, terrorism, and the use of force in the American Society of International Law. He is currently co-chair of the American Society's International Criminal Law Interest Group. He was the Chair of the Section on International Law of the Association of American Law Schools and was on the Executive Council and the President's Committee of the American Society of International Law. He has published works all over the world, many of which address treaties, customary international law, jurisdiction, human rights, international crimes and the incorporation of international law into US domestic law.

Review :
Jordan Paust ... has produced a thorough and definitive account of US war crimes against its detainees.' W. Podmore