Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T14:18:27.459Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

D.C. Circuit Reverses Hamdan Conviction; Law of War Does Not Include “Material Support for Terrorism”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2017

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Senior Judge Douglas Ginsburg, and Chief Judge David Sentelle.

2 Hamdan v. United States, 696 F.3d 1238 (D.C. Cir. 2012); see Terry Baynes, Bin Laden's Driver's Conviction Reversed by U.S. Court, Reuters, Oct. 16, 2012, at http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/16/us-usa-binladen-driver-idUSBRE89F0YV20121016; Charlie Savage, In Setback for Military Tribunals, Bin Laden's Driver's Conviction Is Reversed, N.Y. Times, Oct. 17, 2012, at A22; Del Quentin Wilbur & Ernesto London˜o, Court Overturns Conviction of Bin Laden's Driver, Wash. Post, Oct. 17, 2012, at A2.

3 Pub. L. No. 109-366, 120 Stat. 2600 (2006).

4 Crook, John R., Contemporary Practice of the United States, 102 AJIL 860, 873 (2008) [Find Full Text] [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]; Hamdan, 696 F.3d at 1240.

5 United States v. Hamdan, 801 F.Supp.2d 1247 (U.S. Ct. Mil. Commn Rev. 2011) (en banc).

6 Hamdan, 696 F.3d at 1240.

7 Id.

8 Id. at 124041.

9 Id. at 1241.

10 Hamdan contended that Congress could not constitutionally expand the scopeoflaw ofwar offenses for which he could be tried, arguing that the Define and Punish Clause, U.S. Const. Art. I, 8, cl.10, limits Congress to proscribing offenses already illegal under international law. The court did not decide this question. In a footnote, Judge Kavanaugh argued in his concurrence that the court should decide the issue and reject Hamdan's argument because Congress's war powers under Article I [of the U.S. Constitution] are not defined or constrained by international law. The U.S. Constitution does not give the international communityeither directly, or indirectly through the vehicle of international lawa judicially enforceable veto over Congress's exercise of its war powers. Id. at 1247 n.6.

11 Id. at 1247 (citations omitted).

12 Id.

13 Id. at 1241.

14 Id. at 1248.

15 Id. at 125053 (citations and footnote omitted).

16 Id. at 1253 (Ginsburg, J., concurring).

17 Id.