Featured Faculty: Doug Cassel
This year’s Oscar-award winning documentary, “Taxi to the Dark Side,” features a scene with Notre Dame Law School Professor Douglass Cassel. Beginning with the case of an Afghan taxi driver beaten to death by U.S. soldiers at Bagram Air Base, the film examines the use of torture and other harsh techniques in the “war against terror.” The movie includes an exchange from a debate between Cassel and University of California, Berkeley Law Professor John Yoo, who was an attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel for the United States. Asked by Cassel whether the President could lawfully authorize torturing the child of a terror suspect, Yoo answered, “It depends on the purpose.” This same exchange has also been quoted in the “Washington Post,” “Village Voice,” and other publications.
Cassel—a Notre Dame Presidential Fellow and director of the Law School’s Center for Civil and Human Rights—has worked as a consultant to the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the United States Department of State, and the Ford Foundation. He lectures worldwide and his articles are published internationally in English and Spanish. His commentaries on human rights are published in the “Chicago Tribune” and broadcast weekly on National Public Radio in Chicago.
Cassel earned a B.A. cum laude from Yale in 1969 and a J.D. cum laude from Harvard in 1972. After serving as a Lieutenant in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps for the United States Navy for two years, he worked for Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, first as a staff counsel and then as general counsel, until 1991. From 1992 until 1993, he served as Legal Adviser to the United Nations Commission on the Truth for El Salvador, advising the commission, supervising its investigations, and acting as principle editor of its report.
His research interests cover a wide range of issues in international human rights, international criminal law and international humanitarian law. Currently, he is involved with efforts to strengthen the Inter-American system for protection of human rights and to ensure respect for human rights in counter-terrorism programs.
Cassel is the author of “Jose Padilla Brings Torture to Trial: Can a DOJ Lawyer Be Held Accountable for Advocating the Inhumane?” in the March 2008 issue of “In These Times,” a nationwide progressive magazine.
For more information about Professor Cassel, visit his faculty profile page.
