Front & Center with John Callaway: The War of Law: The Balance of International Law, Military Law, and Constitutional Law in the War on Terror

As American troops battled in Afghanistan and Iraq in the War on Terror, attorneys, judges and politicians engaged in what might be called The War of Law as they consider, litigate and help determine the fate of those captured and detained, in and out of uniform. What constitutes torture, who has access to counsel or trial—and under what jurisdiction?

Gary Isaac has practiced law at Mayer, Brown & Platt (now Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw) in Chicago since 1986. Isaac has been involved in the Guantanamo litigation since the Fall of 2003, when he co-authored two "friend of the court" briefs in the Rasul case on behalf of retired military officers—one urging the Supreme Court to hear the detainees' case, and another urging the Court to hold that U.S. courts have jurisdiction to entertain detainees' petitions for habeas corpus.

Dr. Alberto R. Coll is Associate Professor of Law and President of the International Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul University . Previously, Coll was chairman of the Strategic Research Department at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport , Rhode Island , where he also served as dean of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies. From 1990 to 1993, Coll was principal deputy assistant secretary of defense, with responsibilities in the areas of special operations forces and "low-intensity" conflict, including counterterrorism.

Stephen Presser is the Raoul Berger Professor Legal History at Northwestern University where he has taught since 1977. Previously he was on the law faculty at Rutgers University and worked for the Washington , D.C. firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. He is a leading American legal historian and expert on shareholder liability for corporate debts.