AMICUS BRIEFS: US courts slammed for denying jurisdiction

The detainees at Guantanamo Bay have the right to challenge their detention, the International Bar Association (IBA) said this week in a brief submitted to the US Supreme Court.

The opinion is the latest in a host of amicus briefs drawn up by lawyers, retired US judges, politicians and former prisoners of war in advance of Supreme Court hearings in March or April.

Saying the right to claim habeas corpus is enshrined in international law, the IBA brief criticises lower US court rulings that they have no jurisdiction to adjudicate the cases.

It rejects US government claims that detainees who are citizens of the UK, Australia and Kuwait - friendly states - can be classified as 'enemy aliens'.

The brief also disputes their classification as 'enemy combatants', claiming lack of evidence.

It was drawn up with help from City firm Allen & Overy's New York office, and barristers Vaughan Lowe of Essex Court Chambers and Guy Goodwin-Gill of Blackstone Chambers.Last week, a similar brief prepared by City firm Clifford Chance and New York's Coudert Brothers was signed by more than 50 peers and 85 MPs.

The Law Society signed a further amicus brief drawn up by the US-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights earlier this month.

IBA executive director Mark Ellis said: 'The establishment and growth of international law has benefited for so long from the support of the US that it is upsetting to witness this same guarantor ignore the basic human rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

There can be no "black holes" in the application of basic human rights.'

Rachel Rothwell