It takes a non-lawyer to propose necessary innovations in the law

****Prof. Judea Pearl makes commonsense proposals to recognize the fact that old law does not fit new realities. (This, by the way, is not an argument against the strictures of the U.S. Constitution, whose principles have served us well for two centuries and whose modification by "liberals" has been invariably opportunistic, fad-oriented and unwise.)The letter, of course, is misdirected to the U.S. Attorney General, who has manifested the worst kind of misapplicaiton of the wrong law to inappropriate situations. In any case, it is better directed at the Secretary of State since it is not American law that must be changed only but, rather, international law, to deal with the threats of international terrorism.****
http://tinyurl.com/r3h8hf
We Need a New Legal Regime to Fight the War on Terror An open letter to the attorney general. By JUDEA PEARL
...should make it clear that America is not merely at war with al Qaeda or individual perpetrators of the crimes. It is the ideology of terrorism in its various incarnations that is our most fierce enemy....detainees suspected of terror be classified as a new legal category. Existing categories derived from criminal law and conventional warfare are not equipped to deal with the threat democracies now face....By crafting the Geneva Conventions at the end of World War II, the international community demonstrated the necessity of creating new legal frameworks to deal with new realities. That same need should now compel the international community to embrace a legal category to deal with the new phenomena of a war with no foreseen ending; an army with no honor and no respect for human life; an army with no uniform, no country and no government; and an army that does not reciprocate agreements.
...reminded of the case of piracy, which was a menace until the mid-19th century, when the international community got together and eradicated in just a few years. This was only possible because of a radical change in international law that proclaimed it a crime not against a particular state, but against all mankind....going forward every potential terrorist would know that, if caught, he will not be entitled to privileges under existing legal categories but subject to a new set of restrictions...