National Security Law

Description: This course will examine the national security powers of the federal government in national and international emergencies and crises. Students will study the constitutional and statutory framework within which national security powers are exercised. Topics to be covered include conflicts between national security powers and individual rights (such as First Amendment rights, equal protection, due process, and the writ of habeas corpus ); war powers and the rules of engagement; apprehension of foreign aliens through extradition or force; military tribunals and indefinite detentions of suspected terrorists; government practices in withholding information from the public, and in extracting critical information through invasion of the attorney-client privilege, torture, and other extraordinary conduct; the imposition of obligations on the United States under international law; foreign intelligence surveillance; and the Federal Tort Claims Act. Some of these issues by be taught from a comparative perspective by examining the law of other nations together with that of the United States.