Scott Horton is an American attorney known for his work in human rights law and the

law of armed conflict International humanitarian law (IHL), also referred to as the laws of armed conflict, is the law that regulates the conduct of war (''jus in bello''). It is a branch of international law that seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict by prot ...

, as well as

emerging markets An emerging market (or an emerging country or an emerging economy) is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or wer ...

and

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

. He graduated Texas Law School in Austin with a JD and was a partner in a large New York law firm, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler.Scott Horton biography - Harper's Magazine
/ref> He "has advised sovereigns on the pursuit of

kleptocratic Kleptocracy (from Greek κλέπτης ''kléptēs'', "thief", κλέπτω ''kléptō'', "I steal", and -κρατία -''kratía'' from κράτος ''krátos'', "power, rule") is a government whose corrupt leaders (kleptocrats) use politica ...

predecessors." In April 2007, he joined '' Harper's Magazine'' as a legal affairs and national security contributor, and he currently authors the No Comment blog at Harper's Online. Horton has also written for ''

The American Lawyer ''The American Lawyer'' is a monthly legal magazine and website published by ALM Media. The periodical and its parent company, ALM (then American Lawyer Media), were founded in 1979 by Steven Brill.The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

''Are Republicans Blackmailing Obama?
/ref> and has been interviewed on '' Antiwar Radio''.Scott Horton Interviews The Other Scott Horton
, '' Antiwar Radio'' (Dec. 11, 2010) and the John Batchelor Show. Horton is a lecturer at

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

, as well as a co-founder of the American University in Central AsiaAntiwar Radio: Scott Horton Interviews Scott Horton
/ref> and of Sanghata Global.Sanghata Global
/ref> Horton is a former president of the

International League for Human Rights The International League for Human Rights (ILHR) is a human rights organization with headquarters in New York City. Claiming to be the oldest human rights organization in the United States, the ILHR defines its mission as "defending human right ...

,Scott Horton - Biography
/ref> and he recently contributed to a report which claimed that human rights standards apply to detainees captured by the U.S. in the

War on Terrorism The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...

. He "served as counsel to

Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for n ...

and

Elena Bonner Yelena Georgiyevna Bonner (russian: link=no, Елена Георгиевна Боннэр; 15 February 1923 – 18 June 2011) ...

, among other activists in the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Bilal Hussein case

Horton was hired by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

to represent Bilal Hussein, a photojournalist who had won the Pulitzer Prize and was detained without charges by the

US military The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six Military branch, service branches: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States N ...

for over a year.U.S. military holds AP photographer in Iraq 5 months without charges
/ref>

Matthew Diaz case

Horton has written blog posts on the ''Harper's Magazine'' website concerning the case of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp whistleblower Lieutenant Commander Matthew Diaz.The Persecution of LtCmdr Matthew Diaz
The Navy has commenced the court-martial in Norfolk, Virginia, of LtCmdr Matthew Diaz.

Prescott Bush and Business Plot

In July 2007. Horton wrote an article in ''Harper's Magazine'' claiming that Prescott Bush, father of US President George H. W. Bush and grandfather of US president

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

, was involved in the failed 1934

Business Plot The Business Plot (also called the Wall Street Putsch and The White House Putsch) was an alleged political conspiracy in 1933, in the United States to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install Smedley Butler as di ...

, an attempt to remove US President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

from power.1934: The Plot Against America
Scott Horton, Harper's Magazine, July 28, 2007 However, no evidence from the source material of the congressional report or from contemporary news reports makes any mention of Bush's involvement.

Raymond Azar

On August 28, 2009, Horton asserted that the treatment of Raymond Azar in

Bagram Theater Internment Facility The Parwan Detention Facility (also called Detention Facility in Parwan or Bagram prison) is Afghanistan's main military prison. Situated next to the Bagram Air Base in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan, the prison was built by the U.S. during t ...

in April 2009 by

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

officials was identical to the now-prohibited torture techniques that CIA snatch teams had once used on " high-value detainees" during the

War on Terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...

References

External links

Articles by Scott Horton
''Harper's Magazine''
Sanghata Global
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horton, Scott Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American non-fiction writers American bloggers American human rights activists American male bloggers American male non-fiction writers American political writers Columbia Law School faculty Harper's Magazine people International law scholars New York (state) lawyers Place of birth missing (living people) University of Texas School of Law alumni