Our Attorney-General is missing in action

This document has received strong support from members of the legal profession. It affirms commitment to fundamental norms of the Australian legal system, which are also protected at international law, including the right to a fair trial, the principle of habeas corpus, the prohibition on indefinite detention without trial, the prohibition on torture and access to rights under the Geneva Convention.

And last November the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights joined other groups in requesting the German federal prosecutor to investigate criminal responsibility for high-ranking US officials - including former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and current Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales - for authorising war crimes in relation to prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.

Germany was the chosen legal theatre because it can prosecute foreign violations of international law under its 2002 universal jurisdiction law. And also presumably for punchy symbolic effect, as Germany is the home of Nuremberg in more ways than one.

You don't need to be a warrior intellectual or even a lawyer to join those dots in Australia's domestic context. Where there's a will there's a way. As Ruddock well knows.