TALLAHASSEE — Which courts should try former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein? Is he a prisoner of war? What are the implications for the Middle East problem and the war on terrorism? 

These are some of the questions that Florida State College of Law Professor Fernando Tesón will address on Wednesday, January 14, at 4 p.m. in Room 103 at the law school. Tesón’s presentation, “The Capture of Saddam and International Law,” is open to the public. 

With Saddam Hussein in U.S. custody since December 14, international human rights groups want assurance that he receives a trial perceived by Iraqis and the international community as independent and fair. 

“The talk will be about the alternatives for bringing Saddam Hussein to justice for his crimes, and the different legal and political implications of the eventual trial” said Tesón, the Tobias Simon Eminent Scholar Professor of Law. 

Tesón is widely known for his scholarship relating political philosophy to international law, and in particular his defense of humanitarian intervention. He is author of A Philosophy of International Law (Westview Press 1998) and Humanitarian Intervention: An Inquiry into Law and Morality (2d ed., Transnational 1997). He has served as a Professor of Law and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy at Arizona State University, where he taught for 17 years prior to joining Florida State University’s faculty. 

Before entering academia, Tesón was a career diplomat for the Argentina Foreign Ministry in Buenos Aires for four years, and Second Secretary, Argentina Embassy in Brussels for two years. He resigned from the Argentine Foreign Service in 1981 to protest against the human rights abuses of the Argentine government. Tesón has served as visiting professor at Cornell Law School, Indiana University School of Law, University of California Hastings College of Law, the Oxford-George Washington International Human Rights Program, and is Permanent Visiting Professor, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina.