Barbara Harlow, Professor of English at University of Texas, welcomed Kristine Huskey, Strauss Center Fellow and Professor at the UT School of Law, on October 21, 2009 to discuss her new book, Justice at Guant√ɬ°namo: One Woman’s Odyssey and Her Crusade for Human Rights.

Ms. Huskey shared her personal and unconventional journey from a career in modeling in New York City to becoming a human rights lawyer. Quoting passages from her new book, she described her fight for Guantnamo detainees’ rights to habeas corpus. She was amazed that courts were resistant to hearing detainees’ cases. Ms. Huskey represented the detainees and visited Guantnamo several times. She faced challenges in gaining trust from her clients, who initially thought she was an undercover spy sent by the U.S. government. Although the Obama administration has decided to shut down Guantnamo, she fears that the current preventive detention system is judicially crafted to defy the government’s detaining authority.

Ms. Huskey answered questions from the audience regarding the definition of terrorist and national security threat, the Geneva Convention’s relevance to the situation at Guantnamo, and the government’s rights under preventive detention law.

Kristine A. Huskey is a University of Texas Law Professor and a Fellow at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law. She established the National Security Clinic at UT Law School in 2007 and has supervised law students on a variety of national security matters, including representing Guantnamo detainees and providing research in the landmark Boumediene case.

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