Law Commons^™

Judging Myopia In Hindsight: Bivens Actions, National Security Decisions, And The Rule Of Law, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

Liability in national security matters hinges on curbing both official myopia and hindsight bias. The Framers knew that officials could be short-sighted, prioritizing expedience over abiding values. Judicial review emerged as an antidote to myopia of this kind. However, the Framers recognized that ubiquitous second-guessing of government decisions would also breed instability. Balancing these conflicting impulses has produced judicial oscillation between intervention and deference. Recent decisions on Bivens claims in the war on terror have defined extremes of deference or intervention. Cases like Ashcroft v. Iqbal and Arar v. Ashcroft display a categorical deference that rewards officials' myopia. On the …

Can Congress Ban People From Threatening To Burn The Quran? Yes: No Rights Are Absolute, Especially Amid Legitimate Safety Issues, Jessica D. Gabel

Faculty Publications By Year

No abstract provided.

The Intelligibility Of Extralegal State Action: A General Lesson For Debates On Public Emergencies And Legality, François Tanguay-Renaud

Articles & Book Chapters

Some legal theorists deny that states can conceivably act extralegally in the sense of acting contrary to domestic law. This position finds its most robust articulation in the writings of Hans Kelsen and has more recently been taken up by David Dyzenhaus in the context of his work on emergencies and legality. This paper seeks to demystify their arguments and ultimately contend that we can intelligibly speak of the state as a legal wrongdoer or a legally unauthorized actor.

Seeing The State: Transparency As Metaphor, Mark Fenster

UF Law Faculty Publications

When applied as a public administrative norm, the term and concept “transparency” has two intertwined meanings. First, it refers to those constitutional and legislative tools that require the government to disclose information in order to inform the public and create a more accountable, responsive state. Second, it operates as a metaphor that identifies and decries the distance between the public and the state, and that drives and shapes the desire for a more perfect democratic order. Viewed together, these two meanings both demand efforts to impose legal obligations on the state to be “open” and suggest that such efforts are …

Development Of An Outcomes-Based Undergraduate Curriculum In Homeland Security, James D. Ramsay, Daniel A. Cutrer, Robert Raffel

Security Studies & International Affairs - Daytona Beach

As a professional discipline, homeland security is complex, dynamic, and interdisciplinary and not given to facile definition. As an academic discipline, homeland security is relatively new and growing, and its workforce aging. As such, there is an acknowledged need to develop academic homeland security programs to try and meet anticipated workforce needs. However, the lack of an accreditation system or a set of available published outcomes (or standards) have complicated efforts towards homeland security program development. At present, determining which courses to teach and which outcomes in each course to pursue must be left to anecdotal conversations, reviews of the …

Development Of An Outcomes-Based Undergraduate Curriculum In Homeland Security, James D. Ramsay, Daniel Cutrer, Robert Raffel

Applied Aviation Sciences - Daytona Beach

As a professional discipline, homeland security is complex, dynamic, and interdisciplinary and not given to facile definition. As an academic discipline, homeland security is relatively new and growing, and its workforce aging. As such, there is an acknowledged need to develop academic homeland security programs to try and meet anticipated workforce needs. However, the lack of an accreditation system or a set of available published outcomes (or standards) have complicated efforts towards homeland security program development. At present, determining which courses to teach and which outcomes in each course to pursue must be left to anecdotal conversations, reviews of the …

Citizenship Perception Strain In Cases Of Crime And War: On Law And Intuition, Mary De Ming Fan

Articles

The jurisprudence on crime and war has repeatedly indicated that citizenship matters in determining the scope and applicability of constitutional protections. Just how citizenship matters and what vision of the citizen controls have been murky, however. A rich literature has developed deploring how the nation and the jurisprudence have appeared to slip beneath the baseline of protections when faced with formal citizens who challenge our popular notions about what citizens look like, feel like, and do. What warrants further examination is why this may be so. Understanding the processes that may blur the doctrine and lead to slippage in citizenship …

"Undead" Wartime Cases: Stare Decisis And The Lessons Of History, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

References to the “lessons of history” are ubiquitous in law. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in recent debates over U.S. counterterrorism policy. In response to the Bush Administration’s reliance on World War II-era decisions - Johnson v. Eisentrager, Ex Parte Quirin, Hirota v. MacArthur, and In re Yamashita - opponents have argued that these decisions have been rejected by the “lessons of history.” They argue that the history of wartime cases is one marked by executive aggrandizement, panic-driven attacks on civil liberties, and overly quiescent courts - none of which should be repeated.

But what does it really …

Moral And Legal Responsibility With Respect To Alleged Mistreatment Of Transferred Detainees In Afghanistan: Presentation To The House Of Commons Special Committee On The Canadian Mission In Afghanistan, Craig M. Scott

Commissioned Reports, Studies and Public Policy Documents

The present paper takes the form of presentation made on February 10, 2010, to the prorogued Canadian House of Commons Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan, with Members of Parliament from the Bloc Québécois, Liberal Party, and New Democratic Party in attendance. The subject of the presentation is a report and commentary on an all-day event organized by the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School. The event, held in Toronto on February 8, 2010, was called the Special Forum on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan. The thematic title …

Responses To The Ten Questions, Robert Knowles

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Preempting Justice: Precrime In Fiction And In Fact, Mark Niles

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Searching For Remedial Paradigms: Human Rights In The Age Of Terrorism, Frances Howell Rudko

Faculty Publications

Nine years after the unprecedented terrorist attacks on September 11, judicial response to various governmental and individual methods of combating terrorism remains deferential and restrained. The courts have heard at least three types of cases brought by advocates for three distinct groups: the alleged perpetrators of terrorism; the victims of terrorist attacks; and third party humanitarian groups. Implicit in the practical question of how to deal effectively with terrorism is the broader consideration which Congress, the President and others must also address: how to respond to the terrorists' extreme human rights violations without violating international humanitarian law.

The State Secrets Privilege In The Post-9/11 Era, 30 Pace L. Rev. 778 (2010), Steven D. Schwinn

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Remodeling The Classified Information Procedures Act (Cipa), Afsheen John Radsan

Faculty Scholarship

The intelligence community and the law enforcement sector are supposed to be working closely to keep us all safe from terrorists and other dangers. The benefits of this cooperation should not be frittered away by unnecessary burdens in trying suspected terrorists in civilian courts. If the executive branch is to be kept away from the dark side of counterterrorism, the courts, Congress, or a combination of the two should modernize their approach to alignment, to Section 6 of Classified Information Procedures Act, and to closed portions of trials.

First, a prosecutor’s discovery obligations should apply to the intelligence community only …

The Choice Of Law Against Terrorism, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

The Obama administration has continued to apply the wartime paradigm first developed by the Bush administration after 9/11 to respond to terrorism. In cases of trials before military commissions, indefinite detention, and targeted killing, the U.S. has continued to claim wartime privileges even with respect to persons and situations far from any battlefield. This article argues that both administrations have made a basic error in the choice of law. Wartime privileges may be claimed when armed conflict conditions prevail as defined by international law. These privileges are not triggered by declarations or policy preferences.

Legalism And Decisionism In Crisis, Noa Ben-Asher

Faculty Publications

In the years since September 11, 2001, scholars have advocated two main positions on the role of law and the proper balance of powers among the branches of government in emergencies. This Article critiques these two approaches-which could be called Legalism and Decisionism-and offers a third way. Debates between Legalism and Decisionism turn on (1) whether emergencies can be governed by prescribed legal norms; and (2) what the balance of powers among the three branches of government should be in emergencies. Under the Legalist approach, legal norms can and should guide governmental response to emergencies, and the executive branch is …

Exporting U.S. Criminal Justice, Allegra M. Mcleod

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article explores how and why, in the Cold War’s wake, the U.S. government began to export U.S.-style criminal law and procedure models to developing and politically transitioning states. U.S. criminal law and development consultants now work in countries across the globe. This article reveals how U.S. initiatives have shaped state and non-state actors’ responses to a range of global challenges, even as this approach suffers from a deep democratic deficit. Further, this article argues that U.S. programs perpetuate U.S.-style legal institutional idolatry (which is often tied to systemic dysfunction both in the United States and abroad), and in so …

Placing Your Faith In The Constitution, Harold H. Bruff

Publications

No abstract provided.

Developing U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy And International Law: The Approach Of The Obama Administration, Winston P. Nagan, Erin K. Slemmens

UF Law Faculty Publications

Prior U.S. presidential administrations have developed and adhered to the nuclear weapons policy of nuclear deterrence. This policy was largely conditioned by the Cold War and the fact that the U.S. Cold War adversary was a major threat to U.S. security because of its nuclear capability. The policy of nuclear deterrence worked on the principle of mutually assured destruction. It appears to have had the effect of discouraging recourse to nuclear weapons as instruments of war. It has also been generally perceived as a position that has an uneasy relationship with conventional international law. Even before entering office, President Obama …

The Case For Stewart Over Harlan On 24/7 Physical Surveillance, Afsheen John Radsan

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explains why the government’s physical surveillance can reach a point in terms of duration and intensity that it becomes a “search” under the Fourth Amendment. As references, Katz v. United States and Kyllo v. United States stand out from the canon. Katz, decided in 1967, swept away a prior emphasis on property rights and trespass laws to hold that the electronic monitoring of a phone booth was a search. Since then, the two-part test from Justice Harlan’s concurring opinion has received as much attention as the totality-of-the-circumstances test in Justice Stewart’s majority opinion. Kyllo, decided just months before …

Law Enforcement And Intelligence Gathering In Muslim And Immigrant Communities After 9/11, David A. Harris

Articles

Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, law enforcement agencies have actively sought partnerships with Muslim communities in the U.S. Consistent with community-based policing, these partnerships are designed to persuade members of these communities to share information about possible extremist activity. These cooperative efforts have borne fruit, resulting in important anti-terrorism prosecutions. But during the past several years, law enforcement has begun to use another tactic simultaneously: the FBI and some police departments have placed informants in mosques and other religious institutions to gather intelligence. The government justifies this by asserting that it must take a pro-active stance in order …

The Air Force And Twenty-First-Century Conflicts: Dysfunctional Or Dynamic?, Charles J. Dunlap Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

American Airpower In The 21st Century: Reconciling Strategic Imperatives With Economic Realities, Charles J. Dunlap Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

“Vexing” is certainly the right word to describe the state of resource allocation in the national security community. Despite still sizable defense budgets, serious economic constraints combine with a wide range of complicated threats to create extremely difficult choices for policy makers. To help them work through the decision-making process, Congress mandates Quadrennial Defense Reviews (QDRs). QDRs “are intended to guide the services in making resource allocation decisions when developing future budgets.” The 2010 QDR rightly insists that “America’s interests and role in the world require armed forces with unmatched capabilities.”6 Recent resource decisions, however, do not provide much comfort …

National Security And The Shadows Of Judicial "Common Sense", Alexander A. Reinert

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Alienated: A Reworking Of The Racialization Thesis After September 11, Ming H. Chen

Publications

This article revises widespread application of the racialization thesis to Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians following September 11. It suggests in its place an “alienation thesis” to describe the formation of an alien identity for those perceived and treated as noncitizens. This thesis draws on Asian American and critical race scholarship to re-interpret sociological understandings of the post-September 11 response to Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians. The article concludes that shifting conceptions of this phenomenon is critical to reforming “alienating” practices that function not only to cause harm to their intended targets, but also to distort the legal requirements of …

How Much Surveillance Is Too Much? Some Thoughts On Surveillance, Democracy, And The Political Value Of Privacy, Benjamin J. Goold

All Faculty Publications

Over the past decade it has become increasingly common to speak of the emergence of a surveillance society. Surveillance is an almost inescapable part of 21st century life. There is a very real danger that individual privacy - as it is currently understood - may soon become a thing of the past. Some would argue privacy is already dead and we have no choice but to accept our newly transparent lives. For many, surveillance has become part of daily life during visit banks, stores, shopping malls, and many public streets and parks. Travel through airports subjects our bodies to physical …

Ten Questions On National Security, Jeffrey D. Kahn

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This essay was written in response to an invitation by the editors of the William Mitchell Journal of the National Security Forum to answer one or more of ten questions concerning national security law and policy. This essay provides the author's answer to the question: "Would President Obama have the authority to hold a United States citizen without charge in a military brig for six months if that citizen - who lives in Minnesota - is suspected of links to al Qaeda following a one-month trip to Somalia?"

The Structure Of Terrorism Threats And The Laws Of War, Matthew C. Waxman

Faculty Scholarship

This article considers a major debate in the American and European counterterrorism analytic community – whether the primary terrorist threat to the West is posed by hierarchical, centralized terrorist organizations operating from geographic safe havens, or by radicalized individuals conducting a loosely organized, ideologically common but operationally independent fight against western societies – and this debate’s implications for both jus ad bellum and jus in bello. Analysis of how the law of armed conflict might be evolving to deal with terrorism should engage in more nuanced and sophisticated examination of how terrorism threats are themselves evolving. Moreover, the merits of …