Oral history interview with Thomas B. Wilner, 2009.

Biographical Note

Managing Partner, International Trade and Government Relations, Shearman & Sterling LLP

Scope and Contents

Born 1944, Washington, D.C; education: high school diploma, St. Albans School; B.A., Yale University, 1966; LL.B., University of Pennsylvania, 1969; career: current managing partner, International Trade and Government Relations, Shearman & Sterling LLP; career focus: litigation, government policy and regulation, international business and trade, antitrust law; Supreme Court cases: Rasul/Al-Odah v. Bush, 2004; Boumediene v. Bush, 2008; discussions: post-World War II international human rights law; Geneva Conventions, prisoner-of-war case law and precedence, habeas corpus, Combatant Status Review Tribunals, Military Commissions Act, congressional, public and legal advocacy for Guantanamo detainees; reminiscences: Kuwaiti involvement with Guantanamo Bay cases, relationships with Kuwaiti prisoners and families, visits to Guantanamo, relationship with Center for Constitutional Rights, criticism of judiciary and national media.

Subjects

• Combatants and noncombatants (International law)
• Detention of persons--Cuba--Guantánamo Bay Naval Base.
• Geneva Conventions (1949 August 12)
• Grele, Ronald J., interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp.
• Habeas corpus--United States.
• Human rights.
• Interviews.
• Lawyers--United States--Interviews.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Prisoners of war--Legal status, laws, etc.--Cuba--Guantánamo Bay Naval Base.
• Prisoners of war--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States.
• Rule of law--United States.
• Shearman & Sterling (New York, N.Y.)
• United States.--Military Commissions Act of 2006.
• United States. Supreme Court.
• Unlawful combatants--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States.
• Wilner, Thomas B., 1944---Interviews.

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