Legal Experts Available for Comment on Afghanistan

Newswise — Three law professors at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law have practical and hands-on experience with Afghanistan and thus can offer unique insights into the current debate on U.S. military expansion in the country. Each has spent time with Afghan prosecutors in the U.S. and Afghanistan. Each has been instrumental in a project to assist the Afghan government to reconstruct its justice system essentially from the ground up after 30 years of civil war and the demolition of the existing Afghan system.

Amos Guiora, professor of law, teaches and has published widely on counter-terrorism and the prevention and mitigation of global conflicts. He is also retired from the Israel Defense Forces Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He is currently in Europe where he recently spent time in discussions with senior German military officers.

James Holbrook, clinical professor of law, is a specialist in alternative dispute resolution. His combat experience during the Vietnam war motivates his ongoing commitment to conflict resolution. In 2008 he and Wayne McCormack presented a one-month long rule-of-law program for 16 Afghan prosecutors in Salt Lake City, and in early 2009 Professor Holbrook spent three months in Baghdad managing the law school’s Global Justice Project: Iraq.

Wayne McCormack, professor of law, teaches classes on terrorism and the international law of crimes and has published widely on terrorism and legal responses to terrorism. In 2008, he and James Holbrook presented a one-month long rule-of-law program for 16 Afghan prosecutors in Salt Lake City.