University of New England

Fordham legal scholar
Julian Davis Mortenson to speak on 'Guantanamo: Recovering American Justice' at UNE April 1st
                                   
BIDDEFORD, Maine - The University of New England’s Department of English and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences are pleased to announce a lecture, “Guantanamo: Recovering American Justice,” by Julian Davis Mortenson, J.D., Fordham Law School professor of international human rights law.

The lecture will be held April 1, 2008, at 6 p.m. in Ludcke Auditorium on the Westbrook College Campus.

The event is free and open to the public.
 
The topic of Mortenson's talk is the detention of alleged enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, which has become a signature element of the United States’ strategy in what is often described as the global war on terror. 

Background
Mortenson believes that these detentions - imposed indefinitely on the basis of secret evidence without anything approximating meaningful judicial review - represent a sharp departure from Anglo-American legal tradition. Mortenson will address critical questions of whether this departure is justified, and what this should mean for our historic commitment to liberty and due process. 
 
Mortenson will examine and offer broader perspectives on the meaning of the Guantanamo detentions, both as a litigator currently enmeshed in the struggle over defining due process at Guantanamo, and as an academic whose larger project is reconciling American commitment to justice and due process with  shifting demands and new threats.
                                      
Mortenson's Career
Mortenson, a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law School, teaches international human rights law at Fordham Law School. His research focuses on problems of institutional design in the developing system of international tribunals, as well as on the application of human rights norms in the national security context.

Before joining the Fordham faculty, Mortenson was an associate at the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, where his practice focused on national security matters and international law.  He was extensively involved in representing the petitioners in Boumediene v. Bush, a Supreme Court case asserting the habeas corpus rights of Guantanamo detainees.
 
He was extensively involved in representing the petitioners in Boumediene v. Bush, a Supreme Court case asserting the habeas corpus rights of Guantanamo detainees, and he continues to represent 11 veterans in the first challenge since Lawrence v. Texas to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on gay service members in the U.S. military.

Prior to joining Wilmer Hale, Mortenson worked in The Hague as an associate legal officer at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He also served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter and to Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III.

Space is limited, reservations are suggested. Please contact Elaine Brouillette at 207-602-2144; or email, EBrouillette@une.edu.

(Press release posted Feb. 21, 2008)