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Nelsonville Attorney Attends World Law Congress
By: Brendon Butler
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Nelsonville city attorney Garry E. Hunter's recent presentation at a worldwide congress of law professionals in Prague, Czech Republic, has resulted in a resolution to be presented at the United Nations.
Attorneys, academic law professors and judges from about 50 countries attended the 24th Biennial Congress of the World Jurist Association, which also serves as a special consultative body with the United Nations.
Hunter presented a paper at the congress called "The Use of Technology to Invade Personal Privacy in the Interest of Collective Security: Does the End Justify the Means?"
As a result of the paper, the body passed a resolution calling on all world states to balance electronic surveillance with human rights protection and due process of law.
"The interest of privacy of the individual is really of a concern to me, but also you recognize that we have to give up some of those privacy rights to allow collective security for all of our persons. I want a balancing to occur. … I think the congress agreed because they developed a resolution along those lines."
That resolution, along with less than 20 others adopted by the congress, will be presented to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, said Hunter.
"We have a special status with the United Nations, so the resolutions that we adopt … go straight to the United Nations, and there they are assigned to committee," Hunter said. "So there is real possibility that it will in fact advocate and receive some benefit in the world."
Hunter also chaired a panel on law and technology, and served as a moderator for a demonstration trial.
The next congress will be held in spring 2012 in Washington, D.C. The topic is "Law and Technology: Privacy and Data Security in the Digital Age."
Hunter appeared on WOUB Television's Newswatch program last night.