UC Davis experts: Law, civil liberties and terrorism

The following University of California, Davis, faculty are available to comment on aspects of law, civil liberties and terrorism.

• International criminal law and human rights
• Civil rights, racial profiling
• 9/11 and racial profiling
• Censorship, freedom of expression
• Juvenile detainees, torture at Guantánamo Bay
• Deconstructing the “Age of Terror”

International criminal law and human rights

Professor Diane Marie Amann of the UC Davis School of Law is an expert in international criminal law, human rights and constitutional law. In the recently completed manuscript "The U.S. Campaign Against Terrorism," she explores whether the post-Sept. 11 situation justifies the anti-terrorism measures imposed, when the law permits suspension of civil rights because of an emergency and the ability of traditional sources of law to address such questions. Amann, who is co-writing a case book on international criminal law, has recently published "The United States and the International Criminal Court" in the American Journal of Comparative Law and "Spotting Money Laundering: A Better Way to Stop Organized Crime?" in the Syracuse Journal of International and Comparative Law. Amann returned in August from a year's sabbatical as a visiting professor at the University of Paris 1 (Pantheon-Sorbonne) and the Irish Center for Human Rights. Contact: Diane Marie Amann, School of Law, dmamann@ucdavis.edu.

Civil rights, racial profiling

Kevin Johnson, professor of law and Chicana/o studies at UC Davis, says the collateral damage of the domestic war on terrorism has been the civil rights of immigrants and certain groups of U.S. citizens. A specialist in civil rights and immigration law, Johnson says federal government measures have created hardships for immigrants and unfairly made Arabs and Muslims in the United States the subjects of racial profiling. He is co-author of "Race, Civil Rights and Immigration Law After Sept. 11, 2001: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims," in a symposium of the New York University Annual Survey of American Law. Contact: Kevin Johnson, School of Law, (530) 752-0243, krjohnson@ucdavis.edu.

9/11 and racial profiling

Thomas Joo of the School of Law is author of "Presumed Disloyal: Wen Ho Lee, the War on Terrorism, and the Construction of Race," forthcoming in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. In the article, he discusses how Asian Americans are often presumed to be disloyal to the United States. This had disastrous consequences for Japanese Americans during World War II and more recently for Wen Ho Lee, the American nuclear scientist wrongly accused of spying for China. Arab Americans are now presumed to be disloyal terrorists or terrorist sympathizers, with similarly tragic consequences for civil rights. Joo teaches and writes about race and Asian American legal history. Contact: Thomas Joo, School of Law, (530) 754-6089, twjoo@ucdavis.edu.

Censorhip, freedom of expression

Challenging books is a pervasive American response to literature that deals with sex, race, homosexuality and other uncomfortable subjects, says UC Davis English professor Don Abbott, who specializes in freedom-of-expression issues. "There is this impulse in American society to challenge literature because some groups want to prohibit people from reading certain books, which is a violation of the First Amendment," Abbott says. Among the most challenged books these days are those in the Harry Potter series, because they deal with wizardry and magic, Abbott points out. However, a perennial favorite book to ban has been "Huckleberry Finn," because of its presumably racist message and language. Most of the challenged books have received recognition as good or even great literature, Abbott says. Contact: Don Abbott, English, (530) 752-6097, dpabbott@ucdavis.edu.

Juvenile detainees, torture at Guantánamo Bay

Linguistics professor Almerindo Ojeda, director of the UC Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas and the Guantanamo Testimonials Project, can talk about his efforts to compile and archive information related to Guantanamo from sources worldwide. The volunteer-staffed Guantanamo Testimonials Project gathers accounts of torture of Guantanamo Bay prisoners found in news media reports, e-mails, diaries and other sources worldwide. In addition, the project has published a book, "The Trauma of Psychological Torture," that contains the proceedings of a September 2006 conference sponsored by the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain, which drew psychologists, psychiatrists, neurobiologists, lawyers and historians from nine institutions in the U.S. and Germany. Contact: Almerindo Ojeda, Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, aeojeda@ucdavis.edu, (530) 752-9933.

Deconstructing the “Age of Terror”

Scott Shershow, professor of English, focuses his work on contemporary legal and political issues, including the Guantanamo detainees, illegal detention, torture, sovereign power and the laws of war. He is the author of "Does Torture Have a Future?" in the fall 2006 issue of the journal Boundary 2 and "Beyond or Before the Law at Guantanamo" in the fall 2004 issue of the journal Peace Review. He is at work on a book tentatively titled "Dignity, Sovereignty, Sacrifice: Rethinking a Fatal Triangle in the Age of Terror." Contact: Scott Shershow, English, scshershow@ucdavis.edu, (530) 752-3269.

Media contacts

• Claudia Morain, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9841, .

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