There has always been some tension between the ethical, legal, and professional obligations of professionals and the requirements of military service. This tension has been increased by the War on Terror. Physicians, mental health professionals, lawyers, and law enforcement/corrections officers serving in the military have been placed in situations in which their professional ethics, obligations, and legal duties may contradict military necessity or directives, or even place the role of professional in direct conflict with the role of military personnel.
As the management of armed conflict, the law of war, and the professionalization of the military has increased, this tension has similarly increased. Military professionals have been asked to bring their expertise, skills, and professional talents to the prosecution of military action not just as military personnel but as doctors, mental health professionals, lawyers, and law enforcement/corrections officers. Doctors and mental health professionals are charged with supervising and controlling interrogations, lawyers are asked to provide legal opinions and advise on the treatment of prisoners, and law enforcement and corrections officers must guard and control prisoners. While performing these duties military necessity can impose conflicting duties and concerns. The need for information, validation, or security may require different loyalties and focus than the professional duty. The need for information about an upcoming attack that could save the lives of comrades may directly contradict the need for care or treatment of a prisoner.
This symposium brings together professionals, ethicists, theorists and practitioners from medicine, mental health care, the law, law enforcement, and the military to explore these complicated and timely issues in an open and frank discussion.
Title:
"Divided Loyalties: Professional Standards and Military Duty"
An Interdisciplinary Symposium funded in part by the Arthur W. Fiske Memorial Lectureship Fund
Co-sponsored by: Center for Professional Ethics, Frederick K. Cox International Law Center, Institute for Global Security Law & Policy, Law-Medicine Center, and Center for Social Justice
Speaker Information:
- Deborah Ascheim, MD, Associate Professor Mount Sinai School of Medicine
- George Annas, Professor Boston University Law School & School of Public Health
- David Frakt, Professor Barry University Law School, Orlando
- Jon Hanson, Professor Harvard Law School
- Beth Hillman, Professor University of California, Hastings
- Steven Reisner, Physicians for Human Rights/ International Trauma Studies Program New York University.
Agenda:
View Agenda:
http://law.case.edu/centers/law_med/content.asp?content_id=177
Location:
Moot Courtroom (A59)
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
11075 East Blvd.
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
CLE Credit:
6.5 of CLE credit available.
Additional Information:
Open to the public at no cost.
CLE credit will be available for a $200 fee to lawyers who attend.
We encourage attendees to arrive at registration 20 minutes prior to the start of a lecture to sign in, obtain materials, and be seated.
DIRECTIONS TO CAMPUS
There is no law school parking, however, public parking, for a fee, is available in the Cleveland Botanical Garden parking underground garage. Also, meter parking might be available.
Recording in any form is prohibited.
Supplemental Readings:
MORE:
The Ohio Military / Veterans Legal Assistance Project (OMVLAP) is set up to connect low-income veterans (and some active duty personnel) with volunteer lawyers willing to represent them pro-bono in matters of landlord/tenant evictions, credit card debt, employment law, and uncontested divorce and dissolutions.
