Hanify-Howland Presents 41st Annual Public Lecture

Legal scholar and policy expert Ruth Wedgwood delivered the 41st annual Hanify-Howland Memorial Lecture on Nov. 30 at 8 p.m. in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom at the College of the Holy Cross.

An audience of students, faculty, and other members of the campus community attended the timely lecture, “Fighting Terrorism Within the Law.”

At a reception for members of the Hanify-Howland Committee and other invited guests, Ward Thomas, associate professor of political science, was named the new faculty advisor to the Committee, succeeding David Schaefer, professor of political science, who served for many years.

The committee’s new Web site also launched this fall. Along with a chronology of previous lectures, the site invites suggestions for future speakers. The committee aims to bring speakers to campus who “will foster student debate and discussion of current issues, as well as inspire members of our community to commit their lives to public service.” The 12-student committee was founded in 1965 in honor of Judge Edward Hanify, Class of 1904, and Mr. Weston Howland.

At her November lecture, Wedgwood talked about the problems of the “failure of deterrence” — both in criminal law and international strategy — in dealing with non-state actors such as al Qaeda and the difficulties of anticipation and interception, rather than waiting for events to unfold, in the required factual showings for use of force and application of criminal law. She also addressed the attempted moral distinction between action and passivity — the assumption of some that it is morally preferable to refrain from action, where the foundation is uncertain, even at the cost of failing to protect against malevolent ends by other actors — measuring this against the new view about an affirmative “responsibility to protect.”

Wedgwood is the Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, and Director of the Program in International Law and Organization at the School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, in Washington, D.C. She also serves on the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board, the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on International Law and the CIA’s Historical Review Panel. She is the American member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Wedgwood has commented frequently on issues of terrorism and the law on National Public Radio, “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” and BBC, among other media outlets. She has testified before the Senate on issues of war crimes, Presidential war powers and trying Saddam Hussein.

Related Information:

* Ruth Wedgwood to Deliver 41st Annual Hanify-Howland Lecture at Holy Cross