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Scott Silliman

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Scott Silliman
Judge of the United States Court of Military Commission Review
Incumbent
Assumed office
September 12, 2012
Appointed byBarack Obama
Preceded byWilliam Coleman
Personal details
Born1943 (age 80–81)
EducationUniversity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (BA, JD)

Scott Livingston Silliman[1] (born 1943) is a Professor Emeritus of the Practice of Law at Duke Law School, and Emeritus Executive Director of Duke Law School's Center on Law, Ethics and National Security.[2][3] He was also an adjunct professor of law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC),[4] and at North Carolina Central University.[5]

Academic career

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Silliman earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at the University of North Carolina in 1965 followed by a J.D. degree in 1968.[2][6] While there he participated in the ROTC program. Upon graduation, he began a 25-year career as a military lawyer, in the United States Air Force. When he retired, in 1993, he joined the faculty at the Duke Law School. He was the first Executive Director of Duke's Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, a position he held for 18 years.

Career

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Silliman was a military attorney, called to active duty as an U.S. Air Force judge advocate in 1968, and later a staff judge advocate (senior attorney) and, in his last assignments, the senior attorney for Tactical Air Command[6][7] and later Air Combat Command.[8][9] In 1993, he retired from the Air Force as a colonel.[9][10]

Silliman is an expert on national security law,[11][12][13][14] military law,[15][16][17][18] and the law of armed conflict.[19][20]

His views have been cited in various media, including by The New York Times,[20][21] The Washington Post,[22] The Boston Globe,[23] The Christian Science Monitor,[24] Newsweek,[25] The Guardian,[26] NPR,[27] USA Today, and the New York Daily News. In 2012 Silliman was appointed by then President Obama and later confirmed by the Senate as an appellate judge on the US Court of Military Commission Review, (USMCRC), a blue ribbon panel created solely to review rulings and verdicts from the Guantanamo Military Commissions.[2]

During the final part of the rescue of the crew of Maersk Alabama three of the four pirates retreated to the vessel's lifeboat, taking the Captain as a hostage, together with $30,000 from the ship's safe.[28] According to widely publicized accounts of the Captain's rescue, when snipers heard a firearms discharge, on the lifeboat, three snipers each killed one of the pirates with a single shot. It emerged, during the trial of the remaining pirate, that the Captain could hear the labored breathing of at least one injured pirate. During the trial Philip L. Weinstein said that an expert on firearms wounds who examined photos of the dead pirates said they had been shot 19 times. Weinstein argued that the SEALS had violated their obligations, under the Geneva Conventions, to refrain from further injuring enemy combatants, who were too injured to further participate in hostilities. According to Fox News Silliman defended the SEALs, stating that "the SEALs had to make the assumption that the Somalis were armed and a continuing threat. In other words, they were still combatants."[28]

An opinion Silliman offered on the guilt of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, and his four co-defendants, in the 9-11 Guantanamo Military Commission triggered a civilian appeals court to overrule the USCMCR.[29] The civilian appeals court agreed with the defendants that since Silliman had voiced an opinion, in a 2010 telephone interview with the BBC two years before he was appointed to the court, that the five were guilty, that he was biased, and should have recused himself.

Works

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Select articles

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  • "Robinson O. Everett and National Security", 59 DUKE L. J. 1447 (2010)
  • "Prosecuting Alleged Terrorists by Military Commission: A Prudent Option", 42 CASE W. RES. J. INT'L L. 289 (2009)
  • "On Military Commissions", 36 CASE W. RES. J. INT'L L. 529 (2004)
  • "Troubling Questions in Interrogating Terrorists", 90 DUKE MAG., September–October 2004
  • "Detaining Terrorists at Guantanamo Bay: Questions of Law and Policy", 25 NAT'L SEC. L. REP. 1 (2003)
  • "The Iraqi Quagmire: Enforcing the No-Fly Zones", 36 NEW ENG. L. REV. 767 (2002)

Testimony to the Senate

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Major service awards

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References

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  1. ^ "United Nations Anniversary dinner". The News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.). October 19, 1999.
  2. ^ a b c "Professor Scott Silliman, Duke Law School" (PDF). US Department of Defense. 2014-10-07. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-12-25. Retrieved 2017-08-12. Besides teaching at the law school, he served as Executive Director of Duke's Center on Law, Ethics and National Security from its inception in 1993 until July 2011, and now serves as its Director Emeritus.
  3. ^ "Former Air Force Deputy Judge Advocate General to join Duke Law faculty July 1". 0-www.law.duke.edu.library.law.suffolk.edu. April 29, 2010. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  4. ^ "Scott L. Silliman". Law.unc.edu. Archived from the original on June 10, 2010. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  5. ^ "NCCU – School of Law – Faculty Listings". Web.nccu.edu. January 31, 2010. Archived from the original on June 10, 2010. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  6. ^ a b "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2010-05-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ^ "Scott L. Silliman". Law.duke.edu. August 31, 1993. Archived from the original on June 9, 2010. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  8. ^ "The Virginian-Pilot Archives". Nl.newsbank.com. May 16, 1999. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  9. ^ a b Prior, Richard (September 11, 2001). "Balancing prosecution and protection – The Daily Record – Jacksonville, Florida". Jaxdailyrecord.com. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  10. ^ "ProfNet Experts Round-Up: Detention of Terror Suspects". Newswise.com. February 16, 2006. Archived from the original on June 7, 2011. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  11. ^ "Contractors Indicted After Probe Into Shooting That Killed 17 Iraqi Civilians". washingtonpost.com. December 6, 2008. Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  12. ^ Risen, James; Lichtblau, Eric (January 16, 2009). "Court Affirms Wiretapping Without Warrants". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 21, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
  13. ^ "Charges shift the fight on Padilla, He is indicted, but not in the "dirty bomber"case. Some say Justice was aiming to avoid a defeat". Philadelphia Inquirer. November 23, 2005. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  14. ^ Shane, Scott (November 1, 2007). "Nominee's Stand May Avoid Tangle of Torture Cases". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 4, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
  15. ^ Heard on All Things Considered (November 15, 2005). "Guantanamo Case Awaits High Court Ruling". NPR. Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  16. ^ "Correspondents Report – Hicks in legal limbo". Abc.net.au. Archived from the original on November 11, 2012. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  17. ^ "Army: Failures in pregnant soldier's death - Military- NBC News". NBC News. September 12, 2008. Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  18. ^ Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington (November 10, 2008). "Obama legal advisers draft plans for Guantánamo Bay prison | World news | guardian.co.uk". London: Guardian. Archived from the original on September 4, 2013. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  19. ^ "News | Killing by the numbers". Salon.com. 9 May 2008. Archived from the original on May 4, 2009. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  20. ^ a b Kaplan, Eben (January 25, 2006). "Q&A: Targeted Killings". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 2, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
  21. ^ Risen, James; Lichtblau, Eric (January 16, 2009). "Court ruling buoys case for wiretaps". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 21, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
  22. ^ "Cases Against Detainees Have Thinned". washingtonpost.com. November 2, 2008. Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  23. ^ Vicini, James (October 1, 2006). "New terrorism trial rules could face Supreme Court scrutiny – The Boston Globe". Boston.com. Archived from the original on July 26, 2010. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  24. ^ "Guantanamo detainees on US soil: a legal minefield". CSMonitor.com. December 15, 2009. Archived from the original on July 26, 2010. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  25. ^ Michael Hirsh (5 August 2008). "Hirsh: Why the Hamdan Verdict is Big Loss for Bush – Michael Hirsh". Newsweek.com. Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  26. ^ Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington (November 11, 2008). "Closing down detention centre 'not so easy' | World news". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on September 4, 2013. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  27. ^ "Terrorism Trials Pose Dilemma For U.S." NPR. February 15, 2010. Archived from the original on April 24, 2010. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  28. ^ a b "$30G went missing in SEAL rescue of Capt. Phillips; SEALs given polygraph test". Fox News. 2013-10-11. Archived from the original on 2017-09-24. Retrieved 2017-08-12.
  29. ^ Steve Vladeck (2017-08-09). "D.C. Circuit Holds that 9/11 Appellate Judge Should Have Recused". Just Security. Archived from the original on 2017-08-09. Retrieved 2017-08-12.
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Legal offices
Preceded by Judge of the United States Court of Military Commission Review
2012–present 		Incumbent
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