A Hartman Hotz Symposium: Intelligence, Law, and Democracy

Abstract

On April 25, 2007, the Hartman Hotz Trust of the University of Arkansas hosted a symposium to discuss the relationships between intelligence, law, and democracy. This article contains a transcript of the topics discussed at the symposium. Don Bobbit, Dean of the Fulbright College introduced the panel, and Steve Sheppard, Enfield Professor of Law, moderated the discussion. The panelists included three guests with experience in the intelligence field: Lord Robin Butler, former head of the British Civil Service; Alberto Mora, former General Counsel of the United States Navy; and William Howard Taft IV, former Acting Secretary of Defense and Legal Counsel of the State Department.

Professor Sheppard raised questions about intelligence, the framework law provides, and the necessary levels of accountability to the people of a democracy. Mr. Mora addressed the issue of cruelty by discussing four false legal or policy assumptions the United States government made in its decisions to apply cruelty to detainees in the War on Terror. Mr. Taft discussed why, pursuant to the Convention against Torture and the Geneva Convention, torture should not be a tool used to gather intelligence. He also claimed that while some levels of accountability to the public are required, full disclosure may hamper intelligence operations. In respect to confidentiality, he acknowledges that disclosure among the legislative and executive branches of the federal government provides sufficient accountability to the public. Lord Butler offered an account of his tenure in British intelligence. He also discussed how the right to privacy is qualified against the interest of the public at large. All of the panelists agreed torture is both morally wrong and illegal. Even when asked if a dire enough situation would ever justify torture, the panelists stated torture should always be illegal. If torture occurred out of necessity, it would be left to a jury to decide whether to convict.

Keywords: torture, Geneva convention, cruelty, convention against torture, Lord Robin Butler, William Howard Taft IV, Alberto Mora, intelligence, information, terrorism, democracy, accountability, right to privacy, qualified right, morality, illegal, University of Arkansas School of Law, Arkansas, Don Bobbit

JEL Classification: K00, K1