Perhaps at no time in the history
of our nation has law played such a
central role in the development, execution,
and assessment of national security policy as
it has in relation to the U.S. response to the
terrorists attacks of September 11, 2001. This
phenomenon has produced unprecedented
tension between the policy demands of
national leaders charged with protecting the
nation from the threat of terrorism and the
inherent obligation to ensure such policies
comply with the fundamental legal principles
of our free society. As lawyers intuitively
understand, it is at this intersection of policy
demands of the client and obligations imposed
by the law that ethical challenges are bred.

The legal and ethical challenges associated
with the War on Terror have spanned
a spectrum ranging from the prosecution
and defense of alleged terrorists, the
characterization of terrorism as war crimes,
the treatment of alleged terrorist operatives,
and the application of U.S. national power
in the international community. In order
to explore the ethical and legal challenges
generated by this wide array of issues, South
Texas College of Law is proud to present this
year’s ethics symposium, Law, Ethics, and
the War on Terror.

This year’s symposium will include a
truly distinguished list of participants
with an extraordinary collective range of
experience and expertise. Participants include
several current or retired General Officers
from three different military services, experts
and practitioners in the field of terrorism
prosecution and defense in the federal civilian
court system, the Chief Prosecutor for the
Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay,
the senior U.S. Army expert and advisor to
the Army Judge Advocate General on all law