The thrill of finding and killing Osama bin Laden for orchestrating the 9/11 terrorist attacks may have overshadowed a key question:
Was it legal?
That question was the subject of debate among a group of law professors and international legal experts today at Pace University Law School.
Pace Law Professor Thomas McDonnell organized the event months ago as a symposium to show law students and professors the importance of international law in an increasingly globalized society.
But when bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs on Sunday, the topic became more timely.
“There are serious legal questions,” he said. “If he could have been captured, should have he been captured?”
There were no clear answers.
Robert Van Lierop, a former U.N. representative for the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, said the U.S. military could never have turned over bin Laden to Pakistani authorities.
“There’s not a chance in the world he would have been extradited and given due process,” he said.
Van Lierop said that even though bin Laden was not armed when he was killed, his stated desire to be a martyr, his penchant for suicide bombings and his lack of explicit surrender were solid reasons not to take any chances.
“I’m not as troubled by his death,” he said. “I don’t know who could second-guess a split-second decision. You don’t know what’s behind the door or who could burst into the room. They did attempt to save human life.”
Alexander Greenawalt, an international law professor at Pace, questioned if bin Laden was killed to avoid a highly politicized trial.
“I’m uneasy about it,” he said.
University of Houston Law School Professor Jordan Paust was concerned more with the decision to kill bin Laden. He said the U.S. was likely justified in raiding the compound because he was orchestrating more attacks there, putting “the theater of war right over his head.”
Cornell Law School Professor Sital Kalantry said the U.S. legal system is not prepared to try terrorists, evidenced by the number of terror suspects who have been held at Guantanamo Bay for nearly a decade.
“That is so shameful,” she said. “We don’t have a semblance of due process even if we had captured him.”
Others wondered if the United States has clouded the rules of war by killing bin Laden in Pakistan, and if it could set the stage for similar actions in other countries.
“I’m a little unhappy with the trail we’ve gone down,” said Peggy McGuiness, a human rights scholar at St. John’s University School of Law. “Here we are, 10 years after 9/11, and there’s no consensus as to what these rules should be.”
As the war on terrorism continues, the panelists said, the United States must show the world that it respects international law.
“Maybe we don’t care so much about the legality because we’re so happy (bin Laden) is dead,” said Professor Cindy Buys of the Southern Illinois University School of Law. “But, as lawyers, we should insist on the rule of law.”
