Advanced Topics in Foreign Relations Law Seminar

3 units

Enrollment limit: 16. Drop deadline: 9:00pm the day after the first class meeting. In this writing seminar, each student will explore a contemporary legal problem in foreign relations law. Over the course of the semester, students will prepare and revise a paper, comparable in scope and quality to a law review note, of no more than 30 pages. Students will choose paper topics at the beginning of the semester, with the help and guidance of the instructor. With instructor approval, students may write on any topic in foreign relations law. General areas of potential research include, but are not limited to, the distribution of foreign affairs powers between the President and Congress, legal issues surrounding the war on terror, the role of courts in adjudicating foreign affairs cases, treatment of enemy combatants and other detainees, the incorporation of international treaty law and customary international law into U.S. law, the role of the 50 states in foreign affairs law, the relationship between the federal and state governments in foreign affairs, and the extraterritorial application of the U.S. Constitution and of U.S. laws overseas. Students must obtain instructor approval of their paper topics before beginning work. Each paper will progress from topic selection to a detailed written outline, to at least two drafts of no more than 30 pages each. We will meet formally as a group at the start of the semester, and will reconvene later in the semester as the need arises. Students will also have mandatory meetings with the instructor over the course of the semester. Students will receive significant individualized feedback after completion of the first draft. There are no formal prerequisites for this course, but students who have not taken a course in foreign relations law or international law may need to do some additional work at the beginning of the semester to familiarize themselves with basic concepts. Grades will be based on a weighted average of the first and final drafts, with heavy point penalties for unexcused missed deadlines. (This seminar is not graded anonymously because the professor works with students on their papers throughout the semester.) 3 units.