The program for the meeting of the Legal History Section at the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools is U.S. Extraterritorial Courts before Gunatanamo:
Media headlines and scholarship over the past decade about the United States trials of non-citizens in the tribunals housed in Guantanamo, Cuba give a sense of irregularity about these proceedings. Put into a broader historical context, these tribunals appear less aberrational. Consular officials paid by the United States tried non-citizens in courts that operated entirely outside the United States, in East Asia, from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. Congress established and paid for the operation one of these courts, while Americans unconnected to the United States government cooperated in the operation of another such court, both in the Chinese city of Shanghai. In addition, United States consular courts operated throughout East Asia during the same period where they tried US citizens in both criminal and civil lawsuits. Three scholars, two from law faculties and one from a history faculty, who have dug through primary source material on these courts and published their findings will describe these courts and their circumstances. Two widely published experts on the historical reach of American government, Professor Dudziak and VanderVelde, will flesh out the ramifications of these courts. Harold Koh, recently returned to academia from his tenure as the Legal Advisor to the Secretary of State in the Obama administration, will chair and moderate.Moderator: Harold Hongju Koh, Yale Law School
Speaker: Professor Pär Kristoffer Cassel, University of Michigan Department of History
Speaker: Tahirih V. Lee, Florida State University College of Law
Speaker: Teemu Ruskola, Emory University School of Law
Commentator: Mary L. Dudziak, Emory University School of Law
Commentator: Lea Vander Velde, University of Iowa College of Law
The Section meeting will take place in the Hilton between 8:30 and 10:15 AM on Saturday, January 4, 2014.
