Legal Scholars Criticize Memos on Torture (very poor professional quality)

[Robbien]

By ADAM LIPTAK

Published: June 25, 2004

Legal scholars asked to assess the recently released Justice Department memorandums concerning torture all but unanimously agreed that the quality of the legal work in them is poor.

. . .

Harold Hongju Koh, dean of the Yale Law School, called the memorandums "embarrassing" and "abominable."

Martin Flaherty, an expert in international human rights law at Fordham University, said, "The scholarship is very clever and original but also extreme, one-sided and poorly supported by the legal authority relied on."

Cass Sunstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said: "It's egregiously bad. It's very low level, it's very weak, embarrassingly weak, just short of reckless."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/25/politics/25LEGA.html?ex=1088740800&en=36f8da75c87adf4e&ei=5062&par