HandmaidensofPwr:LawSecurity

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course will examine the foundations of US national security law: The bodies of law that empower and the bodies of law that restrain the 0exercise of national power against threats to the country. It will look at US constitutional law, US criminal law, the law of armed conflict, human rights law, domestic surveillance law, and the law of covert action. It is designed as an introduction for non-lawyers to the complex fabric of domestic and international law that regulates US national security practices. Each week, the course will examine a single major case and its antecedents, through which it will look at a national security problem as seen through the lens of the law. The course is designed to illustrate the ever-growing fabric of law that governs American national security activities--from prosecutions in federal court to drone strikes to battlefield operations.