Torture, Security, and Law Symposium - February 12, 2015

A SYMPOSIUM AT BERKELEY LAW

Thursday, February 12, 2015
3:30-5:30 pm
Booth Auditorium, Boalt Hall

[PLAY VIDEO OF OPENING REMARKS]
[PLAY VIDEO OF PANEL DISCUSSION]
[PLAY VIDEO OF QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION]

Panelists

Robert H. Cole, Professor of Law Emeritus, Berkeley Law
Mark Danner, author, Torture and Truth, and Professor of Journalism, UC Berkeley
Rebecca Gordon, author, Mainstreaming Torture – Ethical Perspectives in the Post 9-11 United States
Jameel Jaffer, Deputy Legal Director, ACLU

Moderator

Bill Roller, President, Berkeley Group Education Foundation

Sponsored by
Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law

Co-sponsored by
Henderson Center for Social Justice
Human Rights Center

In partnership with
Berkeley Group Education Foundation

The foundational values of our legal system are at stake in United States national security programs. Accordingly, this symposium seeks to promote a heightened awareness of the responsibilities of lawyers, the organized bar, law schools and law students in the context of torture. The panelists will discuss the history and present status of the United States practice of torture, its effects on national security, the role of government lawyers and the impact of lawyers who are representing detainees and challenging government programs, and the possibilities for a regime of greater legal control and governmental accountability. In addition to government lawyers, other professionals have been involved in implementing government programs, and the symposium will report on the involvement of mental health professionals in torture and on what the psychological profession has done to establish ethical guidelines for its involvement in interrogations. Participants include a prize-winning journalist who has investigated government programs, one of the country’s preeminent lawyers seeking accountability for national security programs, and the author of a recent book on Mainstreaming Torture.

(l-r) Robert Cole, Rebecca Gordon, Jameel Jaffer, Mark Danner, and Bill Roller