5:00 – 5:30 PM: Registration

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5:30 – 7:00 PM: From Crisis to Legacy: 25 Years of the War on Terror and the Struggle to Reimagine Freedom, Justice, and Security

Twenty-five years after September 11, 2001, the legal, political, and social transformations set in motion in its aftermath continue to shape governance, conflict, and everyday life. This opening plenary brings together three distinguished leaders whose scholarship, advocacy, and organizing have been central to understanding and challenging the enduring legacies of the post 9/11 era.

Drawing on perspectives from international law, constitutional law, civil rights advocacy, and community organizing, the panel will examine how responses to 9/11 reconfigured the relationship between security and liberty. The conversation will explore the evolution of the legal frameworks that have governed armed conflict, detention, surveillance, targeted killing, and other areas that have seen dramatic expansions of executive power, alongside the expansion of domestic security institutions and the profound consequences of racialized national security policies for Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities in the United States.

The discussion will also consider how these developments have reshaped democratic institutions, normalized exceptional forms of state power, and influenced broader debates about immigration, policing, and civil rights. Looking ahead, the panelists will reflect on the future of the legal and political architectures built in the name of national security, asking what has been entrenched, what may be changing, and what alternative visions of freedom, justice, and collective security are possible.

As the opening conversation for the symposium, this plenary will set the stage for a critical reassessment of the post-9/11 era and invite participants to imagine futures beyond the frameworks of fear, exclusion, and militarization that have defined the past quarter century.

Panelists:

• Hussam Ayloush, Chief Executive Officer, Council on American-Islamic Relations, LA
• Aslı Ü. Bâli, Howard M. Holtzmann Professor of Law, Yale Law School
• Mohammad Tajsar, Director of Immigrants’ Rights, American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California
• Moderator: Ahilan Arulanantham, Professor from Practice and Faculty Co-Director, Miñana Family Center for Immigration Law and Policy, UCLA School of Law

UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider. This session is approved for 1.5 hours of MCLE credit.

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7:00 – 9:00 PM: Dinner

8:00 – 8:45 AM: Registration

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8:45 – 9:00 AM: Moment of Remembrance and Opening Remarks

• Ahilan Arulanantham, Professor from Practice and Faculty Co-Director, Miñana Family Center for Immigration Law and Policy, UCLA School of Law
   

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9:00 – 10:00 AM: 9/11 and the Transformation of the Jus ad Bellum: Twenty-Five Years Later

This panel will examine how responses to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks transformed the international law governing the use of force and continues to shape contemporary conflicts. In the aftermath of 9/11, the United States and its allies advanced an expanded understanding of non-international armed conflict that enabled the “global war on terror” to transcend traditional geographic and temporal limits. The attacks also prompted significant developments in the law of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, including the claim that large-scale attacks by non-state actors may trigger the right to use force even absent direct state attribution. Related doctrines, including the controversial “unwilling or unable” test, further expanded claims regarding when and where force may be used against non-state actors operating within the territory of another state. 

The panel will explore the evolving role of the UN Security Council in legitimizing counterterrorism operations, NATO’s unprecedented invocation of Article 5 following 9/11, and the long-term implications of these developments for collective security. Drawing on contemporary conflicts, panelists will assess whether post-9/11 legal paradigms have normalized increasingly expansive claims of wartime authority and weakened the prohibition on the use of force. The discussion will consider whether—and under what conditions—states can renew their commitment to the Charter framework and strengthen legal constraints on the resort to force in pursuit of a more peaceful international order. 

Panelists:

• Tom Dannenbaum, Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
• David Glazier, Professor of Law, LMU Loyola Law School
• Saira Mohamed, Agnes Roddy Robb Chair in Jurisprudence, Ethics, and Social Responsibility and Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law
• Rachel E. VanLandingham, Professor of Law and Lt Col, USAF (ret.), Southwestern Law School
• Moderator: Jessica Peake, Professor of Law and Director, International & Comparative Law Program, UCLA School of Law

UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider. This session is approved for 1 hour of MCLE credit.

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10:00 – 10:15 AM: Break

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10:15 – 11:30 AM: Torture, Rendition, and Detention: The Erosion of the Rights Regime post 9/11

This panel will examine what happened after 9/11 and how US law and international human rights regimes have responded to (and have changed due to) the increased counterterrorism authority that the US executive, and executives around the world, have claimed post 9/11.  The focus will be on torture, rendition (including both extraordinary rendition and rendition to 3rd country detention in the immigration context today), and changes in detention regimes (both Guantanamo and immigration detention expansion).

Panelists:

• Amanda M. Klasing, National Director of Government Relations and Advocacy, Amnesty International USA
• Steven M. Watt, Senior Counsel, Human Rights Program, American Civil Liberties Union
• Moderator: Richard L. Abel, Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor, UCLA School of Law

UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider. This session is approved for 1.25 hours of MCLE credit.

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11:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Lunch

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1:00 – 2:15 PM: Borders, Migration, and National Security

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created in 2002 to address national security concerns in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Over the last 25 years, however, DHS has expanded its reach to become the largest law enforcement agency in the U.S. And in recent years, much of that growth has focused on restricting immigration and eroding longstanding protections for all immigrants, from asylum seekers at the U.S. border to people who have lived in the country for decades. A panel of experts will discuss how the fight against terrorism has been weaponized in the immigration context, and what the future may hold for immigrants, now 25 years after the 9/11 attacks.

Panelists:

• Hiroshi Motomura, Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law and Faculty Co-Director, Miñana Family Center for Immigration Law and Policy, UCLA School of Law
• Jennie Pasquarella, Interim Executive Director, the Seattle Clemency Project
• Silky Shah, Executive Director, Detention Watch Network
• Moderator: Julia Preston, Journalist and Author, Preston Report

UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider. This session is approved for 1.25 hours of MCLE credit.

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2:15 – 2:30 PM: Break

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2:30 – 3:45 PM: The Racialization of the War on Terror

The “Global War on Terror” declared by the United States government after 9/11 created new forms of and expanded existing state power, ostensibly race-neutral but racialized in enforcement. Concepts such as “radical Islam,” “political Islamist,” and “terrorist activity” criminalized religious identity, beliefs, and practices the U.S. government determined were threats to Western state hegemony in Muslim majority countries and White Christian nationalism in the homeland.  The deeply racialized terms granted the state and private actors license to target Muslims and other racialized groups.  Once normalized, the rights infringing practices expanded to a broad range of political activity challenging the status quo.

Panelists will discuss how “terrorism” and “material support” as concepts were deployed in racial terms; racial surveillance in mosques and later of “Black identity extremists”; contemporary anti-immigrant state action against racialized subjugated people under the guise of combatting “terrorism”; and the various black-listing and designation schemes, including the Department of Homeland Security’s “Designated Terrorist Organization” list, the “No-Fly” list, the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s “Specially Designated Nationals” list, and others. The panel will also discuss how these concepts have been weaponized to punish certain forms of dissent and protest in the United States, including political opposition to the genocide in Gaza.

Panelists:

• Amna A. Akbar, Benjamin N. Berger Professor in Criminal Law and Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law
• Sunita Patel, Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the UCLA Veterans Legal Clinic, UCLA School of Law
• Wadie Said, Professor of Law, University of Colorado Law School
• Shirin Sinnar, Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
• Moderator: Sahar Aziz, Distinguished Professor of Law and Chancellor's Social Justice Scholar, Rutgers Law School

UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider. This session is approved for 1.25 hours of MCLE credit.

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3:45 – 4:00 PM: Break

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4:00 – 5:00 PM: Security, Surveillance, and the Quest for Total Information

The establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, created as a response to 9/11, gathered 22 different government agencies under the banner of security. Agencies with functions as disparate as immigration enforcement, disaster response, biological warfare defense, and infrastructure protection were united under a single umbrella. More than bureaucratic reshuffling, the establishment of DHS inaugurated a new way of thinking about risk, uncertainty, and the future.

Security is an ever-moving target, one that is productive in its indeterminacy. In the 25 years since 9/11, the logic of security has been used to justify mass surveillance, wiretapping, searches of electronic devices at the border, and other incursions into civil liberties. Fear of the unknown has driven the development and adoption of data-driven, black box systems that purport to predict the future, while anxieties over “strangers at the gates” have spurred the creation of terrorist watchlists and biometric identification at every border checkpoint.

This panel will explore the technologies and forms of data collection that have been pursued in the name of national security. Panelists will discuss how the focus on national security has produced new forms of insecurity and reflect on which communities have been most affected by these developments. Drawing on contemporary examples, panelists will also examine how the logic of security has influenced the digital sphere, considering movements like AI safety and child protection.

Panelists:

• Lilly Irani, Professor of Communication & Science Studies and Faculty Director, UCSD Labor Center, UC San Diego; Community organizer, TRUST SD Coalition
• Shakeer Rahman, Attorney, Stop LAPD Spying Coalition
• Nina Toft Djanegara, Fellow, UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy, UCLA School of Law and Samueli School of Engineering
• Moderator: Ameena Mirza Qazi, Attorney, Mirza Law Office and Consulting, former Co-Executive Director, Peace and Justice Law Center

UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider. This session is approved for 1 hour of MCLE credit.

Date and Time of Symposium

The symposium is an in-person event and will not be streamed live or recorded.

Thursday, September 10, 2026

• 5:00–5:30 PM – Registration & Light Refreshments
• 5:30–7:00 PM – Opening Plenary
• 7:00–9:00 PM – Dinner Reception

Friday, September 11, 2026

• 8:00–8:45 AM – Registration & Breakfast
• 8:45 AM–5:00 PM – Symposium

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Cost

The symposium is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

This event is made possible through the support of the sponsoring UCLA Law programs listed above. If you would like to help defray the costs of the symposium and support our ability to offer programs like this free of charge, we welcome contributions of any amount.

Donations may be made through the Critical Race Studies Program Fund and will be used to support the costs of the symposium.

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Parking at UCLA

There are several bike parking stations near the law school where you can park your bike/scooter. You may find a map of the biking parking areas here.

Lots 2 and 3 are the closest lots to the law school, and a map is attached showing their location.
Map of the Campus with Labels for the Law School, Lot 2 and Lot 3

It is a 10-15 minute walk from the parking lots to the law school.

Parking costs range from $5 per hour to $33 for an all-day pass. Average day pass is $18. More information here. 

Disability Parking Options

Dickson Court: Disabled parking is available directly in front of the law school on Dickson Court.

If you’re entering campus from Hilgard Avenue, make a left onto Charles E. Young Drive East. Continue down the road until you reach Dickson Court- please note, you’ll be required to make a right turn at this point.

You’ll find designated disabled parking spots on both sides of Dickson Court. Signage will be posted with instructions on how to pay for parking.

Lot 2 (Alternate Option): If disabled parking spots are not available on Dickson Court, please proceed to Parking Lot 2, where you may park in any of the "pay-by-space" disabled parking stalls.

How to Pay for Parking

1. Park in any unreserved stall in a Pay-by-Plate area.
2. Visit the nearest pay station machine.
3. Enter your license plate number using the number pad.
4. Keep your printed permit as a receipt.

If your vehicle does not have a visible license plate, enter the last six digits of your VIN and display the permit on the driver’s side dashboard.

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Transportation to UCLA

There are several public transportation options available to get to UCLA, read more here.

Several bus lines travel along Hilgard Ave. from Sunset Blvd. with stops within a short walk to the law school (located at Hilgard & Wyton Ave).

The closest and most convenient stop is at Hilgard & Westholme Ave — about a 5-minute walk.

Due to traffic congestion, we recommend allowing extra time and consulting your bus provider's trip planner.

Rideshare

Use this address when calling a rideshare:
385 Charles E. Young Dr. East, Los Angeles, CA 90095

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Hotels & Lodging

The below hotel offers special discounts for booking your stay with them for the Symposium, subject to room availability:

Hotel Angeleno - Symposium Discount Available
Distance: 3.1 miles from UCLA Law
Rate: $169/night + tax for King size rooms and $189/night for Double size rooms
Taxes: 16.2% (not included in the rates above)
Valet Parking: $25/day (discounted)
Booking Reservation Link (please be sure to book through this link): UCLA School of Law Booking Link
Address: 170 N. Church Lane, Los Angeles, CA 90049
Phone: (310) 476-6411

The following hotels are all located within 5 miles of the UCLA School of Law, and though they do not currently offer any special discounts for Symposium guests, they are recommended by our staff. Please find the contact information for these local lodging options below:

The Inn at UCLA (conveniently located across from the UCLA campus)
Distance from UCLA School of Law: 0.1 miles
Phone Number: (310) 825-2923
330 Charles E. Young Drive East
Los Angeles, CA 90095

UCLA Tiverton House (located across from the UCLA campus)
Distance from UCLA School of Law: 1 mile
Phone Number: (310) 794-0151
900 Tiverton Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90024

The Luxe Hotel – Sunset (located across the street from the Hotel Angeleno)
Distance from UCLA School of Law: 3.1 miles
Phone Number: (310) 476-6571
Luxe Hotel – Sunset
11461 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049

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Other Questions/Assistance

If you have other questions or require any accommodations at the symposium, please contact us at crs@law.ucla.edu.

We will be offering CLE credits for each of our sessions. For those seeking CLE credit, please make sure to check in at registration, as this will serve as confirmation of your attendance. Please note that CLE processing will not take place at the registration desk. We will send out follow-up instructions and forms after the symposium.