Teaching National Security Law

In comparison with other subjects currently taught at law schools in this country, national security law is relatively new. Traditionally, issues involving the constitutional separation of powers among the respective branches of government, including war powers, were covered within the context of an offering on basic constitutional law. If there were courses that touched on specific legal issues involving national security, they tended to be occasional seminars teaching military justice. These focused almost exclusively on the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the separate criminal legal system that it establishes for men and women in uniform. One such course, first offered at the University of North Carolina Law School almost 50 years ago and later at Duke University Law School, was taught by Robinson O. Everett, then a young faculty member at Duke.

By Scott L. Silliman

Scott L. Silliman is Professor of the Practice of Law and and Executive Director, Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke Law. Silliman also holds appointments as an adjunct professor of law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and at North Carolina Central University.

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