1,721,051 research outputs found
Episode 11: The Mauritanian (Guests: Nancy Hollander & Mohamedou Ould Slahi)
No full textThe Mauritanian (2021) recounts Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s nightmare journey of secret rendition, torture, and detention at Guantanamo Bay—an odyssey that lasted 15 years, until Mr. Slahi was finally released in 2016, never having been charged with a crime. The film is based on the book, Guantanamo Diary, which Mr. Slahi wrote and had published while still a prisoner at Guantanamo. The book became a critically acclaimed international bestseller. The film was directed by Kevin Macdonald and features Tahar Rahim as Mohamedou Slahi, Jodie Foster as Nancy Hollander, Mr. Slahi’s lead lawyer, Shailene Woodley as Teri Duncan, her co-counsel, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Ltn. Col. Stuart Couch, the military officer assigned to prosecute Mr. Slahi. The film was nominated for and won numerous awards, including a Golden Globe for Jodi Foster’s portrayal of Nancy Hollander. Our guests are Mohamedou Slahi, the former Guantanamo prisoner and now world-famous author, and Nancy Hollander, Mohamedou’s attorney and a leading criminal defense attorney.Timestamps:
0:00. Introduction7:11 Mohamedou’s nightmare begins10:47 What law?12:43 Habeas petition granted, but imprisonment continues18:51 Endless interrogations25:19 Mohamedou first hears he will face the death penalty28:08 Military prosecutor Stuart Couch takes a stand against torture32:19 Writing Guantanamo Diary in a new language34:34 “My life, 24/7 in darkness”37:01 “I have a vow of kindness”38:59: Getting Mohamedou’s story out of Guantanamo43:33 Mohamedou sees his book’s success on Russian TV at Guantanamo48:17 The freedom that is inside you49:48 An advocate for Mohamedou before the Periodic Review Board50:57 “I needed a miracle”53:26 Americans are supposed to be the good guys56:29 The near impossibility of leaving Guantanamo58:41 Mohamedou and his former guard, and friend, Steve Wood1:00:52 Don’t give up; miracles can happen1:02:49 The long shadow of Guantanamo1:04:02 To be free again1:06:26 Capturing the small details about Guantanamo1:08:31 A small nit about the film1:11:14 What it’s like to see yourself being portrayed on screenFurther reading:Bravin, Jess, “The Conscience of the Colonel,” Wall St. J. (Mar. 31, 2007)Coll, Steven, “An Eloquent Voice from Guantánamo,” N.Y.R.B. (Jan. 14, 2016)Hafetz, Jonathan, Habeas Corpus after 9/11: Confronting America’s New Global Detention System (2011)Rosenberg, Carol, “The Legacy of America’s Post-9/11 Turn to Torture,” N.Y. Times (Sept. 12. 2021)Slahi, Mohamedou Ould, Guantámao Diary (Larry Siems, ed.) (2015)https://scholarship.shu.edu/law-on-film-s01/1010/thumbnail.jp
Recommended from our members
Episode 11: The Mauritanian (Guests: Nancy Hollander & Mohamedou Ould Slahi)
No full textThe Mauritanian (2021) recounts Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s nightmare journey of secret rendition, torture, and detention at Guantanamo Bay—an odyssey that lasted 15 years, until Mr. Slahi was finally released in 2016, never having been charged with a crime. The film is based on the book, Guantanamo Diary, which Mr. Slahi wrote and had published while still a prisoner at Guantanamo. The book became a critically acclaimed international bestseller. The film was directed by Kevin Macdonald and features Tahar Rahim as Mohamedou Slahi, Jodie Foster as Nancy Hollander, Mr. Slahi’s lead lawyer, Shailene Woodley as Teri Duncan, her co-counsel, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Ltn. Col. Stuart Couch, the military officer assigned to prosecute Mr. Slahi. The film was nominated for and won numerous awards, including a Golden Globe for Jodi Foster’s portrayal of Nancy Hollander. Our guests are Mohamedou Slahi, the former Guantanamo prisoner and now world-famous author, and Nancy Hollander, Mohamedou’s attorney and a leading criminal defense attorney.Timestamps:
0:00. Introduction7:11 Mohamedou’s nightmare begins10:47 What law?12:43 Habeas petition granted, but imprisonment continues18:51 Endless interrogations25:19 Mohamedou first hears he will face the death penalty28:08 Military prosecutor Stuart Couch takes a stand against torture32:19 Writing Guantanamo Diary in a new language34:34 “My life, 24/7 in darkness”37:01 “I have a vow of kindness”38:59: Getting Mohamedou’s story out of Guantanamo43:33 Mohamedou sees his book’s success on Russian TV at Guantanamo48:17 The freedom that is inside you49:48 An advocate for Mohamedou before the Periodic Review Board50:57 “I needed a miracle”53:26 Americans are supposed to be the good guys56:29 The near impossibility of leaving Guantanamo58:41 Mohamedou and his former guard, and friend, Steve Wood1:00:52 Don’t give up; miracles can happen1:02:49 The long shadow of Guantanamo1:04:02 To be free again1:06:26 Capturing the small details about Guantanamo1:08:31 A small nit about the film1:11:14 What it’s like to see yourself being portrayed on screenFurther reading:Bravin, Jess, “The Conscience of the Colonel,” Wall St. J. (Mar. 31, 2007)Coll, Steven, “An Eloquent Voice from Guantánamo,” N.Y.R.B. (Jan. 14, 2016)Hafetz, Jonathan, Habeas Corpus after 9/11: Confronting America’s New Global Detention System (2011)Rosenberg, Carol, “The Legacy of America’s Post-9/11 Turn to Torture,” N.Y. Times (Sept. 12. 2021)Slahi, Mohamedou Ould, Guantámao Diary (Larry Siems, ed.) (2015)https://scholarship.shu.edu/law-on-film-s01/1010/thumbnail.jp
Episode 39: The Goldman Case (2023) (Guest: Fred Davis)
No full textThe Goldman Case (Le Procès Goldman) (2023), is a French courtroom drama based on the real-life 1976 trial of Pierre Goldman, a far-left Jewish militant who was accused of multiple armed robberies and four murders during a holdup of a pharmacy in Paris. The film, which was directed by Cedric Kahn from screenplay by Kahn and Nathalie Hertzberg, stars Arieh Worthalter as Goldman and Arthur Harari as his lead lawyer, Georges Kiejiman. The film is not only a gripping account of this celebrated trial, but also explores larger themes around individual and collective responsibility, the way courtrooms can become the battleground for contested narratives about the past, and the swirling forces of race, class, and religion in 1970s France.
Guest: Fred Davis
Fred Davis is a former federal prosecutor with extensive trial experience in the United States and France. Mr. Davis’s practice focuses on multi-jurisdictional criminal investigations, building on his deep knowledge of procedural, practical, and cultural differences in national legal systems. Mr. Davis also teaches and writes extensively on comparative and cross-border criminal matters. He is the author of American Criminal Justice: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press 2019), which provides an overview and evaluation of U.S. criminal procedures, noting important ways in which those procedures differ from those applied in many other parts of the world. He is also the author or co-author of several book chapters, including “Financial Crime in France” in Practical Law (2020), and “France” in The International Investigations Review (2020), as well as a chapter in the same book on “Managing the Challenges of Multijurisdictional Criminal Investigations.” Mr. Davis previously served as advisor to the Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and participated as counsel for victims in the trial of Chadian ex-dictator Hissène Habré in Dakar, Senegal, for international human rights violations. He appears frequently on national TV in France to address issues related to American and international criminal justice. Mr. Davis is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction2:34 Background for the Pierre Goldman case5:15 Goldman’s lawyers, Georges Kiejiman and Francis Chouraqui7:48 Breaking down a French courtroom9:21 The lawyer for the victims10:20 Procedural differences between French and American trials14:47 A window into 1970s France17:33 The backdrop of the treatment of Jews in Vichy France23:05 How the Left rallied to Goldman’s side27:10 Tensions around race and policing in France29:58 The role of the investigating magistrate in France 32:22 The verdict and aftermath38:55 French courtroom dramas40:42 Evolving discussion about France’s history during World War II43:40 Studying comparative criminal justice through film
Further Reading:
Goldman, Pierre, Dim Memories of a Polish Jew Born in France (1977)
Oltermann, Philip, “Tried for double murder and adored by the French left: the violent life and crimes of Pierre Goldman,” The Guardian (Sept. 16, 2024)
Paxton, Robert O., Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944 (1972)
Marrus, Michael, R. & Paxton, Robert O., Vichy France and the Jews (1981)
Reid, Donald, “From Souvenirs obscurs to Lieu de mémorie,” French Politics, Culture & Society, vol. 26, no. 2 (Summer 2008)
Vincendeau, Ginette, “The Goldman Case: arresting courtroom drama holds its own outside a French context,” Sight and Sound (Sept. 20, 2024)https://scholarship.shu.edu/law-on-film-s03/1008/thumbnail.jp
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Episode 32: Bridge of Spies (2015) (Guests: Lenni Benson and Jeffrey Kahn)
No full textThis episode looks at Bridge of Spies (2015), the Cold War legal and political thriller directed by Steven Spielberg (and written by Matt Charman, Ethan Coen, and Joel Coen). The film is based on the true story of American attorney James Donovan who is assigned to represent Soviet spy Rudolf Abel after Abel is arrested in New York and prosecuted for espionage. The story takes a turn when American pilot Francis Gary Powers is captured by the Russians after his plane is shot down over the Soviet Union while conducting a surveillance mission. Donovan is then tasked with negotiating a high-stakes prisoner exchange—Abel for Powers—that ultimately succeeds in a climactic scene on the Glienicke Bridge that connected Potsdam with Soviet-controlled East Berlin in 1962. The film is not only highly entertaining; it also provides a window into an important legal issues around national security, criminal, and immigration law that still resonate today. Joining me to explore these issues are Lenni Benson, Distinguished Chair in Immigration and Human Rights Law at New York Law School, who is both one of the nation’s foremost authorities immigration law and a prominent advocate in the field, and Jeffrey Kahn, University Distinguished Professor at SMU Dedman School of Law, a leading scholar on constitutional and counterterrorism law, an expert on Russian law, and the author of a must-read article on the Abel case, published in the Journal of National Security Law and Policy.
Guest: Lenni Benson
Lenni Benson has been teaching and writing in the field of immigration law since 1994. She is a professor at New York Law School and serves as the director of the NYLS Safe Passage Project Clinic. The Clinic partners with The Safe Passage Project, a nonprofit that recruits, trains and mentor pro bono attorneys to represent unaccompanied immigrant youth in removal proceedings and immigration applications. Professor Benson has won national awards for her pro bono leadership and excellence in immigration teaching. She has served as a member of several national task forces on the needs of migrant youth and has been a speaker for the federal government at national trainings. She also served as one of the founding steering committee members of the American Immigration Representation Project, formed in 2017, to expand pro bono representation of detained immigrants. Professor Benson is an emeritus trustee of the American Immigration Law Foundation (now the American Immigration Council), is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and served on the board of the Center for Human and Constitutional Rights. She is the author of numerous books and articles about immigration law.
Guest: Jeffrey Kahn
Jeffrey Kahn is University Distinguished Professor at SMU Dedman School of Law. He teaches and writes on American constitutional law, Russian law, human rights, and national security law. Professor Kahn’s latest research focuses on the right to travel and national security. His most recent book, Mrs. Shipley’s Ghost: The Right to Travel and Terrorist Watchlists (University of Michigan Press, 2013), critically examines the U.S. Government’s No Fly List. Professor Kahn is also co-author of the casebook National Secuirty Law and the Constitution (Aspen 2025). His articles have appeared in leading scholarly journals, including the UCLA Law Review, Michigan Law Review, and the peer-reviewed Journal of National Security Law and Policy. His recent research also focuses on the influence in Russia of the European Convention on Human Rights. He has submitted briefs to the European Court of Human Rights and the Russian Constitutional Court and worked with the Clooney Foundation for Justice in cases concerning human rights and fair trials in Russia.
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction2:15 Who were Rudolf Abel & James Donovan5:56 The Cold War tensions and anxieties8:54 Defending Abel in court11:55 Selective use of immigration law17:46 Abel’s arrest and the legal issues in the case24:14 Abel’s disappearance and coercive interrogation 29:19 Past anti-communist hysteria32:04 Cherry-picking from legal categories to avoid constitutional guarantee40:57 A frightening time for noncitizens engaged in political activity49:32 A foreshadowing of government abuses after 9/1152:04 A questionable citation to Yick Wo v. Hopkins59:02 The vast system of immigration detention105:24 Behind the Iron Curtain112:07 An ex parte conversation with the judge116:25 The aftermath for Abel, Donovan, and Francis Gary Powers120:29 The absence of women in important positions
Further Reading:
Arthey, Vin, Like Father, Like Son: A Dynasty of Spies (2004)
“‘Bridge of Spies’: The True Story is Even Stranger Than Fiction,” ProPublica (Feb. 24, 2016)
Donovan, James B., Strangers on a Bridge: The Case of Colonel Abel and Francis Gary Powers (1964)
Epps, Garrett, “The Real Court Case Behind Bridge of Spies,” The Atlantic (Nov. 17. 2015)
Kahn, Jeffrey D., “The Case of Colonel Abel,” 5 J. Nat\u27l Sec. L. & Pol\u27y 263 (2011)
Sragow, Michael, “Deep Focus: ‘Bridge of Spies,’” Film Comment (Oct. 14, 2015https://scholarship.shu.edu/law-on-film-s03/1001/thumbnail.jp
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Episode 37: First They Killed My Father (2017) & The Gate (2014) (Guest: Melanie O’Brien)
No full textThis episode looks at two films about the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s: First They Killed My Father (dir. Angelina Jolie), and The Gate (or Les Temps des Aveux) (dir. Régis Wargnier). First They Killed My Father is based on the memoir of Loung Ung, who was a five-year-old girl when the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia in 1975. Loung Ung was forced to flee Phnom Penh, Cambodia\u27s capital, with her family. Loung Ung’s parents were killed, and Loung Ung was separated from her siblings; after surviving in a forced labor camp, Loung Ung was forced to become a child soldier. The Gate tells the story of acclaimed French anthropologist, Francois Bizot, who was imprisoned and tortured by the Khmer Rouge for three months in 1971 on suspicion of being a CIA spy, and who later became the French embassy’s translator and intermediary with the Khmer Rouge until he was forced to flee the country. The films, which are both based on personal memoirs, provide a harrowing account of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. I\u27m joined by Dr. Melanie O’Brien, Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western Australia (UWA) Law School and President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. Dr. O\u27Brien is a leading expert on genocide and international law, and is the author of acclaimed scholarly books and articles on the subject.
Guest: Melanie O Brien
Dr. Melanie O’Brien is Associate Professor of International Law & Deputy Head of School (Research) at the University of Western Australia Law School; and President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS). Dr O\u27Brien was a 2023-24 Visiting Professor at the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota, USA; and is a Visiting Scholar at the Human Rights Center, Law School, University of Minnesota. The International Criminal Court has cited Dr. O’ Brien’s her work on forced marriage, and she has been an amica curia before the ICC. She has been an expert consultant for multiple UN bodies, including the UN Special Advisor on Genocide Prevention and the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran. Dr O\u27Brien is the recipient of the Aurora Mardiganian Commemorative Medal from the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute for her work on the Armenian Genocide and Nagorno-Karabakh. Dr O\u27Brien is widely consulted by global media for her expertise on international criminal law. She has conducted fieldwork and research across six continents; and is part of the Ukraine Peace Settlement Project. Dr O\u27Brien is a member of the WA International Humanitarian Law Committee of the Australian Red Cross. She was a 2022 Research Fellow at the Sydney Jewish Museum & a 2023 Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Loughborough, UK. Dr O\u27Brien is the author of Criminalising Peacekeepers: Modernising National Approaches to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (Palgrave, 2017) and From Discrimination to Death: Genocide Process through a Human Rights Lens (Routledge, 2023, Australian Legal Research Awards finalist).
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction3:42 Background on the Khmer Rouge 7:42 Khmer Rouge philosophy and tactics11:50 Forced marriage15:37 The role of propaganda24:58 The use of child soldiers27:48 Life after genocide31:42 First They Killed My Father and the Cambodian genocide38:08 Francois Bizot and Comrade Duch40:10 The French embassy in Phnom Penh43:52 The portrayal of Comrade Duch46:06 The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia55:06 Why Cambodia was a genocide1:00:16 The Khmer Rouge’s destruction of culture1:07:21 Transitional justice in Cambodia1:10:33 The role of memoirs after genocide
Further Reading:
Becker, Elizabeth, When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution (1988)
Bizot, Francois, The Gate: A Memoir (2004)
Killean, Rachel & Moffett, Luke, “What’s in a Name? ‘Reparations’ at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia,” 21(1) Melbourne J. Int\u27l Law 115 (2020)
O’Brien, Melanie, “Le Temps des Aveux/The Gate” (review), Law & Culture (2016)
O’Brien, Melanie, From Discrimination to Death: Genocide Process through a Human Rights Lens (Routledge Press 2023)
Sperfeldt, Christoph, “Collective Reparations at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia,” 12 (3), Int’l Criminal L. Rev 457 (2012)https://scholarship.shu.edu/law-on-film-s03/1006/thumbnail.jp
- …
