Developing Client-Ready Practitioners: Learning How to Practice National Security Law at Military Law Schools

The demand for trained and educated national security lawyers, including those in the military, is not going to lessen. The challenge is to meet the increasing demand with shrinking resources. The military services must first identify national security law as a core, mission-essential discipline. The services should integrate the joint and perhaps inter-agency legal community… Continue reading Developing Client-Ready Practitioners: Learning How to Practice National Security Law at Military Law Schools

Harmonizing Policy & Principle: A Hybrid Model for Counterterrorism

This article explores the tension between the policy objectives of United States counterterrorism efforts (deterrence, incapacitation, and intelligence gathering) and the traditional legal frameworks used to justify them (the law of war and the criminal justice model). All three branches of government, the author urges, have worked at cross-purposes in developing a counterterrorism policy that… Continue reading Harmonizing Policy & Principle: A Hybrid Model for Counterterrorism

Legitimacy Versus Legality Redux: Arming the Syrian Rebels

The provision of lethal aid to the Syrian rebels appears questionable from a purely legal perspective. It would arguably amount to a use of force. Neither of the traditional legal justifications for the use of force—self-defense and authorization by the Security Council—applies in this case. While humanitarian intervention arguably offers a (weak) basis for the… Continue reading Legitimacy Versus Legality Redux: Arming the Syrian Rebels