National Security Law

Semester: Spring 2016
Course ID: 471N
Credit Hours: 4
Unique: 28095

Course Information

Grading Method: Pass/Fail Allowed (JD only)
Cross-listed with other school

Registration Information

Upperclass-only elective

Meeting Times

Day	Time	Location
MON, TUE, WED	9:10 - 10:17 am	TNH 3.142

Evaluation Method

Type	Date	Time	Location
Final exam	May 4, 2016	8:30 am	A-Z in 2.137

Description

Cross- Listing NSA surveillance and Edward Snowden. Detention at Guantanamo. Drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen. Military intervention in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan...and now Iraq again. Waterboarding. Military commissions and civilian terrorism trials. These are just some of the ripped-from-the-headlines topics that we examine in National Security Law. NSL is the core course at the University of Texas for the study of how law regulates U.S. national security policies, practices, and institutions, and the only course that automatically satisfies the prerequisite for my periodic Advanced National Security Law offerings (though I am open to arguments that other relevant courses should count for prerequisite purposes in specific instances). NSL is a challenging but rewarding course. The issues we study implicate the Constitution, statutes, treaties, customary international law, executive orders, departmental regulations and guidelines, historical precedents, and just about every other possible source of law--often in overlapping ways. My goal is to acquaint you with the issues that are most relevant, and to equip you to analyze and discuss them in the same manner as would experienced professionals--with an emphasis on the real-world institutional, political, and policy contexts within which these legal debates actually play out. If you have the slightest inclination to pursue a career touching on these issues, or if you simply find them interesting and wish to be able to understand them at a sophisticated level, this is the course for you. And that's true whether you enter the course inclined to be concerned primarily with security, primarily with civil liberties/human rights, or both. Feel free to contact me directly, particularly if you intend to pursue a career in this field.

Instructors

Chesney, Robert M.

Important Class Changes

Date	Updated
02/29/2016	Course is cross listed
	Exam information updated