Meeting of the International Taskforce on Terrorism, Democracy, and the Law

On Wednesday December 14, 2011, the International Taskforce on Terrorism, Democracy and the Law convened for three days of closed-door meetings at IDI in Jerusalem. The taskforce is a joint initiative of IDI, the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg, Germany, and the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. Established in 2009, the Task Force is comprised of 10 academic experts from the US, Canada, England, Germany, Turkey, and Israel, who engage in comparative legal research on the challenges faced by democracies in striking a balance between preserving national security and safeguarding human rights when dealing with terror. This research enables members to identify best practices and propose innovative solutions that will enable democracies throughout the world to combat terrorism while upholding democratic values and protecting human rights.

Coordinated by IDI Vice President of Research Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer, head of IDI's National Security and Democracy Program, and IDI Senior Fellow Prof. Yuval Shany, head of IDI's Terrorism and Democracy Project, the meeting was devoted to the central theme of terror interrogations, with a specific focus on distinguishing between interrogations and criminal investigations in the fight against terrorism. Specific topics on the agenda included a comparison between German law and international law, an analysis of Canadian cases involving collateral challenges and controls, mirandizing terror suspects in the United States, and interrogation practices and legal safeguards in Israel.

International speakers included: 

• Prof. Oren Gross, Irving Younger Professor of Law; Director, Institute for International Legal and Security Studies, University of Minnesota

• Prof. Trevor Morrison, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law; Co-Chair, Roger Hertog Program on Law and National Security, Columbia Law School 

• Prof. Kent Roach, Prichard-Wilson Chair of Law and Public Policy, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto

• Prof. Ulrich Sieber, Director of Foreign and International Criminal Law, Max Planck Institute, Freiburg, Germany

• Dr. Linus Sonderegger, Max Planck Institute, Freiburg, Germany 

• Prof. Matthew Waxman, Associate Professor of Law; Co-Chair, Roger Hertog Program on Law and National Security, Columbia Law School

In the course of the three-day workshop, members of the Task Force met with Israeli policymakers, practitioners of counter-terrorism, and representatives of the justice system. Distinguished Israeli speakers at this event included:

• Adm. (ret.) Ami Ayalon, Former Director of the Israel Security Authority (ISA)

• Adv. Smadar Ben-Natan, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI)

• Adv. Devorah Chen, Former Director, Department of Security Matters and Special Affairs, State Attorney’s Office, Ministry of Justice

• Justice Emerita Dalia Dorner, Retired Supreme Court Justice; President of the Israeli Press Council

• Dr. Meir Gilboa, Former Senior Police Investigator

• MK Yisrael Hasson, Former Deputy Director of the Israel Security Authority (ISA)

• Adv. Michael Sfard, Human Rights Lawyer

• Adv. Bana Shougry-Badarne, Legal Counsel and Legal Director, Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI)

MK Israel Hason, former Deputy Chief of the Israel Security Agency, opened the conference with reflections on Israel's experience interrogating terrorist suspects. MK Hason highlighted the difficulty of achieving a balance between national security and individual liberties in scenarios where the risk is unknown and the clock is ticking.