Seton Hall law professor to offer free lecture on lack of threat posed by Guantanamo detainees | Press Releases

Image: Mark Denbeaux Prof. Mark P. Denbeaux, counsel to two detainees at the Guantanamo Naval Base and a professor of law at Seton Hall Law School, will present a lecture on "Who Are the Guantanamo Detainees? What Have They Done? And How Do We Know It?" on Tuesday, February 14, at 7:30 pm at Fairfield University's School of Nursing Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Dr. Denbeaux has traveled to Guantanamo and has collected the most comprehensive database to date showing the charges against the alleged enemy combatants still held in U.S. custody. He will argue that while the government has portrayed the Guanatanamo detainees as the worst of the worst, the data make clear that most of the detainees are not dangerous by the government's own standards, and would not seem to be enemy combatants at all, said Lucy Katz, the Robert C. Wright Chair in Business Law, Ethics and Dispute Resolution at Fairfield University and chair of the Management Department in the University's Charles F. Dolan School of Business. Dr. Denbeaux will also discuss the general conditions at Guantanamo and the almost total lack of procedural due process available to the detainees, Dr. Katz said.

"We are very excited to have Prof. Denbeaux speak at Fairfield and share the information he has collected regarding the Guantanamo detainees," Dr. Katz said. "The legality and ethics of the situation in Guantanamo is one that we should all be concerned with as citizens of this country."

Mark P. Denbeaux has represented controversial clients in courts throughout the United States and has served numerous times as an expert witness on handwriting identification. He devotes most of his scholarly interests to evidence and trial advocacy and has published one book and numerous articles. He served four years in Legal Services in New York City and has tried a wide variety of civil and criminal cases. Dr. Denbeaux is an elected member of the American Law Institute, has studied at the London School of Economics, and has lectured at many universities across the country. He received his A.B. from the College of Wooster and J.D. from New York University. Prior to teaching, he was senior attorney in charge of litigation for Community Action for Legal Services of New York City. He was subsequently Chair of the Board of New York City Legal Services Program. He has published numerous articles on evidence, constitutional law, civil procedure and remedies. He co-authored New Jersey Evidentiary Foundation: New Jersey and Federal Rules of Evidence (1995) and Trial Evidence, Cases and Materials (1978). He has been an elected member of the American Law Institute since 1980. He came to Seton Hall in 1972.

The talk is sponsored by the Fairfield University Dolan School of Business Department of Management Program in Law and Ethics, the Campus Ministry, and the College of Arts and Science Politics Department and program in Peace and Justice.