The emerging law of detention

"President Obama's decision not to seek additional legislative authority for detentions at Guántanamo Bay, Cuba--combined with Congress's lack of interest in the task--means that, for good or for ill, judges must write the rules governing military detention of terrorist suspects. As the United States reaches the president's self-imposed January 22, 2010 deadline for Guantanamo's closure with the base still holding nearly 200 detainees, the common-law process of litigating their habeas corpus lawsuits has emerged as the chief legislative mechanism for doing so."--Exec. summary (p.1).