An expert on international law will weigh in on the torture debate Wednesday at Westminster College.
Craig Martin, co-director of the International and Comparative Law Center at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, will give a presentation at noon in the Hermann Lounge of Hunter Activity Center. Martin's presentation is titled "Why a Torture Debate?" The public is welcome to attend.
"The torture debate as a legal discussion has been one of the most enduring debates, as it relates to national security, for the last 15 or so years," said Tobias Gibson, the political science professor at Westminster who helped organize the talk. "He'll be talking about enhanced interrogation, its legal basis and its ramifications."
Gibson added he suspects Martin may allude to the role President Donald Trump's stance on the legality of torturing suspected terrorists played in him winning the election.
"My guess is he'll make an implicit argument about that, though I haven't heard his speech on this before," he said.
Martin teaches public international law, the law of armed conflict, constitutional law and professional responsibility at Washburn.
Gibson said it'll be his first time meeting Martin, who he described as a "well-recognized legal scholar."
"I'm really excited about it. (Martin) actually reached out to us about speaking," he said. "I think that has to do with the reputation of the college, both for the (Winston) Churchill speech and our pre-law program."
Martin earned a doctorate of juridical science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010. He graduated with a juris doctorate from the University of Toronto in 1997 and earned a master of law in 1994 from the Graduate School of Law and Politics from Osaka University in Japan. While in graduate school at Osaka University, Martin extensively studied Japanese and public law.
In 1986, Martin received a bachelor of arts degree from the Royal Military College of Canada.
Originally from St. Lucia, West Indies, Martin served four years as a naval officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, during which he was a watch-keeping and divisional officer in HMCS Preserver and a public affairs officer. He also spent time as a naval attaché in the Canadian Mission to the United Nations in New York City, where he worked on disarmament issues.
Martin was a civil litigator for nearly 10 years in Toronto, Canada, and served as a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada. He also taught law courses at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto and at Osaka University Graduate School of Law and Politics.