This article analyzes two examples of the gap between rhetoric and practice in transparent governance, Internet freedom and intellectual property negotiations, and argues that the Obama administration’s lack of transparency results from structural features of the modern executive branch.
Category Archives: Vol. 6 No. 2
Abuses of Power? | Darker moments in US history are the subject of Vol. 6 No. 2: Watergate, government secrets, and violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Plus, the role simulations play in teaching students about national security law.
Train Wreck: The U.S. Violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention
This article parses the problem of noncompliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention’s (CWC) dismantling obligations as a case study in the operation (or non-operation) of international law. How did the United States, the leading exponent of the rule of law and a prime mover in negotiating and implementing the CWC, fall into such conspicuous violation? What can be done at this point to extricate ourselves and the Russians from this grisly political and legal predicament? And what can we do in the future to avoid other similar international law train wrecks?
National Security Law Pedagogy and the Role of Simulations
This article challenges the dominant pedagogical assumptions in the legal academy. It begins by briefly considering the state of the field of national security law, noting the rapid expansion in employment and the breadth of related positions that have been created post-9/11. It considers, in the process, how the legal academy has, as an institutional matter, responded to the demand. The article then proposes a new model for national security legal education, based on innovations currently underway at Georgetown Law. It points to a new model of legal education that advances students in their pedagogical goals, while complementing, rather than supplanting, the critical intellectual discourse that underlies the value of higher legal education.