Leaving Guantanamo - How One Country Brought its Men Home from the Forever Prison

This multilayered work follows a group of Guantanamo detainees from a single Middle Eastern country, Kuwait, portraying their lives before their capture, to their experience at Guantanamo, to their ultimate release and the lives they have been challenged in remaking after returning home. It is an intimate look at real men held for years without charge and without hope. Eric L. Lewis has represented Guantanamo detainees for more than twenty years and he conducted the hearings that gained the release of the last two Kuwaiti 'forever prisoners.' As part of a committed team, he spent time with these men and their families, fighting to gain access to courts and navigating the politics and diplomacy of the Global War on Terror. As well as telling the story of his time with the Guantanamo detainees, Lewis also analyzes how Guantanamo has changed American law and culture, and how its legacy continues today.

List of contents

1. The long journey beyond the rule of law. 2. Why should Kuwait be different?; 3. Strategizing In a new world - navigating the new paradigm; 4. The rules of the road - the lower courts define a narrow path; 5. Twelve men; 6. The final four - Habeas hearings for the last four Kuwaiti detainees; 7. The United States Government re-engages; 8. The first PRB; 9. And then there was one; 10. Lessons learned.

About the author

Eric Lewis is a human rights lawyer, Chair of the law firm Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss, and President of Reprieve US. Mr. Lewis, along with Reprieve, has represented over seventy Guantanamo detainees, and oversees the Life After Guantanamo project for returned detainees. He holds degrees from Princeton, Yale and Cambridge.

Product details

• Authors: Eric L. Lewis
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 31.01.2026
• EAN: 9781009681377
• ISBN: 978-1-009-68137-7
• Weight: 250 g
• Illustrations: Worked examples or Exercises
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, Human rights & civil liberties law, Politics & government, Politics and government, International humanitarian law, Law: Human rights and civil liberties, Public international law: human rights, International human rights law, Public international law: humanitarian law