法律英语导读(11)

BREAKING NEWS ~ Supreme Court to hear challenge to Gitmo tribunals

　　[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to the Bush administration's use of military tribunals [JURIST news archive] for foreign terror suspects. Hamdan v. Rumsfeld [PDF certiorari petition] comes on appeal from the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, which held [PDF opinion] in July that Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees may be tried by military commissions [JURIST report], overturning a lower court decision [JURIST report] that military commissions were not competent to determine whether the detainee was a prisoner of war. The case involves Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who allegedly served as a driver for Osama bin Laden, and the lower court ruled that Hamdan had not been found by a competent tribunal to be or not to be a prisoner of war and that he was due the full protections of a prisoner of war under the Third Geneva Convention [text]. The district court further held that the military commission rules were not in keeping with those for a court-martial due a POW. The appeals court ruled that because Hamdan was a member of al Qaeda, the Geneva Conventions did not apply to him and he could not assert the unlawfulness of the military commissions on that basis. Late last month, a group of 450 law professors circulated a statement [PDF text] urging the Court to grant certiorari in the case, saying the Court must "the relationship between the President's constitutional powers as Commander-in-Chief and the existing constitutional, statutory, and international rules and tribunals that govern the conduct of war." Additional case documents are available from the lead counsel for Hamdan, including the government brief opposing certiorari [PDF], and several amicus briefs. The Hamdan case was the focus of a recent online symposium in the New York University Journal of Law and Liberty. AP has more.

号外：最高法院将审理关塔那摩军事法庭合法性一案

　　美国最高法院星期一同意审理布什当局让军事法院审理外国恐怖主义嫌犯是否合法一案。汉姆丹诉拉姆斯菲尔德一案源于哥伦比亚地区巡回法院上诉法院的上诉裁定，上诉法院7月份裁定关塔那摩湾的拘留者可以由特别军事法庭审判，推翻了下级法院的判决。而下级法院的判决是特别军事法庭不能决定拘留者是否是战犯。本案涉及萨姆里·阿莫德·汉姆丹，此人声称只是奥萨姆·本·拉登的司机，因而下级法院判决特别军事法庭不能决定汉姆丹是否是战俘，他应该受到第三日内瓦公约的完全保护。地区法院进而裁决由于是战俘，特别军事法庭规则不适用。上诉法院裁定因为汉姆丹是基地组织成员，日内瓦公约对其不适用，他不能在此基础上宣称特别军事法庭审判不合法。上月末，450位法学教授发表声明，敦促最高法院调审此案，声称鉴于总统作为军队总司令的宪法权力和现有的宪法、制定法、国际规则及审理战俘的特别法庭的关系，最高法院有必要审理此案。其他案件相关文件可以从汉姆丹的首席律师处获得，包括政府反对移送的简要声明和几个法庭之友的简要声明。汉姆丹一案是纽约大学法律与自由学报最近在网上举办的一个研讨会的焦点。美联社对此有更多报道

>>点击查看更多关于法律英语的文章