Secretary Chertoff and Israel's Supreme Court President's Remarks

[xandtrick]

On April 30, 2008, Secretary Michael Chertoff and President of the Supreme Court of Israel Dorit Beinisch at the Heritage Foundation’s Civil Rights and the War on Terror—Dilemmas and Challenges event in Washington, D.C.

More... (http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/speeches/sp_1209741455799.shtm)

[Chapital]

I thought this was very interesting..


First, of course, the traditional legal model does not really apply necessarily to the 21st century for a couple of reasons. We know, for example, in the criminal law we’re accustomed to thinking about the criminal law as functioning with a deterrent and a retribution element.

In other words we punish people after they’ve committed a crime. We do it not only to give them their just deserves, but we do it also to deter other people from doing things. But as the President said, terrorists are inherently undeterrable. If you are willing to blow up yourself it is unlikely that you’re going to be deterred by the threat of punishment. That’s distinct, by the way, from the threat of failure, which actually does work as a deterrent.

So our law has to deal with the issue how do you prevent an act; potentially a horrific act, rather than how do you deter it or how do you punish it afterwards. So that is one legal challenge we have to deal with.