2013 Utah Law Review Symposium

The Legal and Ethical Limits of Technological Warfare

S.J. Quinney College of Law, Moot Courtroom

Unmanned drones, cruise missiles, automated weapons, even armed robot warriors. Emerging technologies make it possible to conduct “clinical strikes” that limit civilian deaths, and even “remote warfare” that might lead to reductions in combatant casualties. What are the ethics of waging war from a safe distance? Who is responsible for decision-making? Do different rules of autonomy and accountability apply? If so, who is drafting these new rules of armed conflict and how will they be enforced?

This all-day symposium offers an opportunity to engage with recognized experts representing different disciplines and perspectives regarding the confluence between technological warfare, the law and ethics.

Keynote Speaker: Professor Trevor Morrison

Trevor Morrison is the Liviu Librescu Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, where is he also the faculty co-director of the Center for Constitutional Governance and the faculty co-chair of the Hertog Program on Law and National Security.  He teaches and writes about constitutional law, federal courts, and national security law.  He has been on the Columbia faculty since 2008, and before that spent five years on the faculty of Cornell Law Schoool.  In 2009, he served in the White House as Associate Counsel to the President.  Before entering academia, he was a law clerk to Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1998-99) and to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court (2002-03). In between those clerkships, he was a Bristow Fellow in the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of the Solicitor General (1999-2000), an attorney-advisor in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (2000-01), and an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) (2001-02). Professor Morrison is a member of the American Law Institute and the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Law.  He grew up on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. He received a B.A. (hons.) in History from the University of British Columbia in 1994, and a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1998.

Agenda

8:00 a.m.

Continental Breakfast and Registration

8:45 a.m.

Welcoming Remarks: Dean Hiram Chodosh/Professor Amos Guiora

9:00 a.m.

Keynote Speaker: Professor Trevor Morrison

9:30 a.m.

History of Armed Conflict & Legal Ramification Panel

Moderator: Professor Antony Anghie
Panelists:
Professor Geoffrey Corn, South Texas College of Law
Professor Monica Hakimi, University of Michigan Law School
Professor Frédéric Mégret, Faculty of Law, McGill University

10:45 a.m. – Break

11:00 a.m.

Use of Force Panel
Moderator: Professor Amos Guiora
Panelists:
Professor Laurie Blank, Emory University School of Law
Brig. Gen. (Ret.) David R. Irvine, Former Deputy Commander for the 96th Regional Readiness Command
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Harry E. Soyster, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency

12:15 p.m. – Lunch

1:15 p.m.

Ethics of War Panel
Moderator: Professor Wayne McCormack
Panelists:
Dr. James Carafano, The Heritage Foundation
Professor Claire Finkelstein, U. of Pennsylvania Law School
Professor George R. Lucas, Naval Postgraduate School

2:30 p.m. – Break

2:45 p.m.

Roundtable/Simulation
Moderator: Professor Amos Guiora
Participants: All Panelists

4:45 p.m.

Concluding Remarks: Professor Amos Guiora

6.5 hours CLE (3 hours ethics CLE), email communications@law.utah.edu