An article from the symposium issue of the Indiana Law Journal on "War, Terrorism and Torture: Limits on Presidential Power in the 21st Century." The symposium was convened by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy and the Indiana University School of Law–Bloomington on October 7, 2005.

“Fordham Law School dean William Treanor closes the [symposium] issue with his own good analysis of a variant of [Louis] Fisher’s question: when is congressional authorization of the use of military force unnecessary and what constitutes authorization? Treanor proceeds to identify deficiencies and gaps in the existing scholarship. To all who would join the debate, he provides helpful counsel regarding not only who may make war and how, but also the entire range of questions that involve the relative war powers of Congress and the President and the role of the courts in policing transgressions. Foremost, he argues, “there is little connection between the issues that scholars debate and the constitutional issues involving war that government officials and political leaders confront,” and he makes a strong plea for consideration of “how political actors should engage in constitutional interpretation.” Treanor’s suggested reorientation of the scholarly debate provides a fitting close to a symposium in which the contributors—leading constitutional scholars, government lawyers, and human rights advocates—together have created an impressive volume that significantly advances debate on precisely such questions of enormous practical consequence.” From Foreword by Prof. Dawn Johnsen