Semester: Spring 2023 (tentative) Fall 2022 Summer 2022 Spring 2022 Fall 2021 Summer 2021 Spring 2021 Fall 2020 Spring 2020 Fall 2019 Summer 2019 Spring 2019
Professional/Experiential Skills Courses First Year Courses Only

Natl Security Law (LAW-635-001)
Vladeck

Notices

Description

As the authors of our casebook suggest, “[t]here is no field of legal study more critical to the well-being of our people or our republic than National Security Law. In a world that bristles with animosity and danger, an inadequate national defense would jeopardize our lives and ideals. Yet measures taken in the name of national security sometimes pose comparable threats to those same ideals of liberty and justice.” Our study of National Security Law is, in many ways, the study of this most important balancing act we undertake as a society—the balance between national security and civil liberties. But it is just as much a study of whether this balance really is a zero-sum game—whether it truly is inevitable that greater security comes at the expense of our individual liberties, and vice-versa.

Although we will begin the semester with more of an overview of the constitutional separation of national security powers, especially as between the branches of the federal government, we will devote the bulk of our study to three specific (and related) sets of topics: the detention, treatment, and trial of terrorism suspects, whether in military commissions or civilian criminal courts. Rather than providing a superficial survey of the field of National Security Law, this class will offer a more in-depth analysis of these three issues. In particular, the central questions we aim to consider are (1) what lawful options the government has when it comes to the incapacitation of terrorism suspects; and (2) what role courts should play in reviewing the government’s conduct pursuant to each of its authorities? To that end, as much as our focus is on the actions and policies of the political branches for each topic, we will also look carefully at the role the courts have historically played in resolving legal claims in these fields, including questions as to the appropriate degrees of secrecy, deference, and justiciability, and we will devote significant attention to the work of the federal courts today in defining (and policing) the limits of the government’s authority vis-a-vis those captured in the war on terrorism.

Textbooks and Other Materials

The textbook information on this page was provided by the instructor. Students should use this information when considering purchases from the AU Campus Store or other vendors. Students may check to determine if books are currently available for purchase online.

Our readings will be based out of a casebook, Stephen Dycus et al., Counterterrorism Law (2d ed. 2012). The second edition is substantially different from the first edition, and so it will be difficult, if not impossible, to rely upon an older version of our text.

Not surprisingly, given the subject, there is also a rather massive supplement to the casebook that you are also expected to obtain. Please note that you will need the new, 2015-16 edition; the 2014-15 edition is already out of date.

I will also provide additional readings (including previews of material from the forthcoming third edition of the casebook) for free via MyWCL.

First Class Readings

Please see the Syllabus. Copies of the readings have been posted to MyWCL and distributed via e-mail to students registered for the class.

Syllabus

Use your MyAU username and password to access the syllabus in the following format(s):

• Microsoft Word 2007 (DOCX)
• Adobe Acrobat (PDF)