Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror

by Benjamin Wittes

Overview

An authoritative assessment of the new laws of war and a sensible and sophisticated roadmap for the future of liberty in the Age of Terror

America is losing a crucial front in the ongoing war on terror. It is losing not to Al Qaeda, but to its own failure to construct a set of laws that will protect the American people during this global conflict. As debate continues to rage over the legality and ethics of war, Benjamin Wittes enters the fray with a sober-minded exploration of law in wartime that is definitive, accessible, and nonpartisan. Outlining how this country came to its current impasse over human rights and counte"terrorism" Law and the Long War paves the way toward fairer, more accountable rules for a conflict without end.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143115328
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/26/2009
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Benjamin Wittes is a Fellow and Research Director in Public Law at the Brookings Institution. A former editorial writer for The Washington Post specializing in legal affairs, Wittes currently writes a column for The New Republic online and is a contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly. He is a member of the Hoover Institution Task Force on National Security and Law.

Table of Contents

Law And The Long WarIntroduction

One: The Law of September 10
Two: The Administration's Response
Three: The Real Guantanamo
Four: The Necessity and Impossibility of Judicial Review
Five: The Case for Congress
Six: The Twin Problems of Detention and Trial
Seven: An Honest Interrogation Law
Eight: Surveillance Law for a New Century

Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

" A rich and thoughtful volume . . . Law and the Long War addresses an impressively broad range of questions."
-Los Angeles Times

" Law and the Long War deserves to be read widely. It is one of the most balanced and nonpolemic accounts of legal issues in the war on terror to date."
-Foreign Affairs

" A strong case for adjusting our policies so that the public can support them more robustly."
-The Wall Street Journal

Editorial Reviews

"A rich and thoughtful volume . . . Law and the Long War addresses an impressively broad range of questions."
-Los Angeles Times

" Law and the Long War deserves to be read widely. It is one of the most balanced and nonpolemic accounts of legal issues in the war on terror to date."
-Foreign Affairs

" A strong case for adjusting our policies so that the public can support them more robustly."
-The Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

Those who like what the president and Congress have done since 9/11 probably will like many of Wittes's ideas. Those who like what the courts have done probably won't. All will profit, however, from his evenhanded and elegantly written analysis. The continuing challenge posed by Salim Hamdan (and many others like him) is to ensure protection against both terrorism and the government itself. That will require painful tradeoffs. Agree with Wittes or not, his effort to get the balance right is a must-read in the contemporary literature about reconciling security and freedom.
—The Washington Post

Michael J. Glennon

Brookings Institution fellow Wittes evaluates the "war on terror" from a refreshingly nonpartisan perspective that assesses the chasm between the gravity of American security needs and the "inadequacy" of its laws. Both a defense and critique of the Bush administration, the book argues in favor of many of the measures taken by the executive branch while condemning its failure to secure congressional cooperation and the necessary "legal architecture" to back policies that were bound to be unpopular. Wittes reserves his real ire for a legislature that has ignored its mandated responsibility of creating "coherent, legal structure for this war" and a Supreme Court that has attempted to extend its jurisdiction over detainees and is increasingly interfering in foreign policy. Wittes's familiarity with the law and excellent analysis of contemporary Supreme Court cases give this book insight that transcends party politics and make for a fascinating read; however, his heavy reliance on legalese may alienate casual readers. His prose, when not bogged down by jargon, is appealing ("The Constitution is old-old and short") and services a robust call to action. (June)

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Publishers Weekly

Wittes (research director in public law, Brookings Inst.) attempts to stake out a middle ground between civil libertarians, who see the courts as the protector against Executive Branch abuses in the war on terrorism, and Justice Department architects of the war on terror. He does an excellent job of discussing the way this country has historically treated prisoners in wartime, citing Civil War and World War II examples. In clear prose, the book starts by discussing existing laws prior to the 9/11 attacks, then dissects the Patriot Act and the tangled response of the courts to prisoner interrogations, detentions, trials, and surveillance. The central thread of the book is that the Bush administration failed to involve Congress in its decisions and flouted the Geneva Conventions. Thus, the book is a rebuttal to John Yoo's War by Other Means: An Insider's Account of the War on Terror, which argued that the Geneva Convention did not apply to al-Qaeda and that the President's broad war-making powers gave him control over terrorism, with Congress's role limited to cutting off funds. Wittes succeeds at proposing a statutory framework for fighting terrorism. Recommended for legal or current events collections in public as well as academic libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ3/1/08.]
—Harry Charles

Library Journal

Brookings Institution fellow and Atlantic Monthly contributing editor Wittes (Confirmation Wars: Preserving Independent Courts in Angry Times, 2006, etc.) argues for a new legal framework for combating the terror war. According to the current administration, from early on the fight against international jihadist terrorism was "a new kind of war" against "a different type of enemy" requiring military force, criminal and civilian law enforcement and covert actions, touching everything from immigration to banking to biomedical research and involving foreign police and intelligence agencies. Notwithstanding this early understanding, the Bush administration has chosen, instead, to manage the war almost purely as a military matter, relying on the president's power as commander in chief to authorize any number of dubious practices pertaining to detention, surveillance, interrogation, transfer and trial of terrorist suspects. Outraged liberals decry the assault on civil liberties; conservatives marvel at their tender solicitude toward fanatics trying to murder us. Similarly, Wittes's premise that the war on terror is real and requires vigorous prosecution will dismay congenital critics of the president, just as his call to curb executive authority will unsettle Bush supporters. Unsurprised that this or any president would push the envelope of executive authority in the aftermath of 9/11, Wittes persuasively argues that as a long-term strategy such a power grab is politically doomed. Nor can we safely rely on the Supreme Court's piecemeal review of the president's overreaching, placing military and security matters in the hands of the judiciary, the least qualified branch to deal with such issues.In an argument of paramount interest to specialists and in prose comprehensible for all (best illustrated by his discussion of the detainees at Guantanamo), Wittes insists that it is past time for Congress to take up its law-making responsibilities, to put an end to the predictable, largely unproductive confrontations between the executive and judiciary on a matter so vital to the country's welfare. So levelheaded and full of good sense, it's almost certain to be ignored.

Kirkus Reviews