National Security Law Commons^™

Disciplining Deference: Strengthening The Role Of The Federal Courts In The National Security Realm, Dominic X. Barceleau

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note will argue that federal courts need to be more “disciplined” in their deference determinations in order to effectively check the Executive’s power. Part I will look at the Constitution and its allocation of foreign relations powers for evidence of the appropriate amount of deference that ought to be shown by the judiciary. While the text of the Constitution is largely silent on this question, Part I will show that this silence does not exclude a role for the judiciary in foreign affairs. Part II will proceed to discuss several important Supreme Court decisions that have helped to flesh …

Bulk Biometric Metadata Collection, Margaret Hu

Scholarly Articles

Smart police body cameras and smart glasses worn by law enforcement increasingly reflect state-of-the-art surveillance technology, such as the integration of live-streaming video with facial recognition and artificial intelligence tools, including automated analytics. This Article explores how these emerging cybersurveillance technologies risk the potential for bulk biometric metadata collection. Such collection is likely to fall outside the scope of the types of bulk metadata collection protections regulated by the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015. The USA FREEDOM Act was intended to bring the practice of bulk telephony metadata collection conducted by the National Security Agency (“NSA”) under tighter regulation. In …

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Their Use Of Satellite Services And (Space) Law, Frans Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

This chapter represents an effort to identify the components of international space law that apply to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It argues that, while other national and international regimes of law apply to UAV activities, international space law is implicated only to the extent that UAV technology relies on satellite services for control and guidance purposes.

Venezuela Public Health Issue, Luke Vargas

Global Public Health

While every country around the world faces a form of public health issues, the issues that the country of Venezuela faces are different. Their public health problem is not a disease that can be solved by science, or a cure. It’s a problem that can only be solved by the people within the county itself. The country of Venezuela now lacks the proper medical supplies needed to help cure diseases and normal vaccinations, and the only ones to blame is their government. Because their government has now refused to pay their debts to the surrounding countries they have now lost …

Preparing To Commit Domestic Terrorist Activity: Does The United States Have Adequate Tools To Stop This?, Diane Webber

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Posse Comitatus Act And The Fourth Amendment's Exclusionary Rule, Patrick Walsh, Paul Sullivan

American University National Security Law Brief

No abstract provided.

How Cybersecurity Regulation For The Smart Grid Could Upset The Current Balance Of Federal And State Jurisdiction In Electricity Regulation, Cynthia Anderson

American University National Security Law Brief

No abstract provided.

Smart Machines And Smarter Policy: Foreign Investment Regulation, National Security, And Technology Transfer In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence, 51 J. Marshall L. Rev. 279 (2018), Justin Shields

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Security And Human Rights Dilemma: An Inquiry Into U.S.-Ethiopia Diplomatic Relations 1991-2012, Seife Ayalew

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

In the post-1991 U.S.-Ethiopian diplomacy, the use of foreign policy as a framework to advance the cause of human rights has faced several challenges rooted in the way human rights is defined and the intricate interests vested in the U.S. foreign policy establishment. This article elucidates the limitations and challenges of diplomatic machinery as a framework for advancing the cause of human rights. First, human rights in the U.S. foreign policy machine have been given a marginal or subordinate place in diplomatic priorities. Second, the Government of Ethiopia’s (GOE) resistance and tough diplomatic measures and Ethiopia’s strategic importance to the …

Targeted Capture, Alexander K.A. Greenawalt

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article confronts one of the most difficult and contested questions in the debate about targeted killing that has raged in academic and policy circles over the last decade. Suppose that, in wartime, the target of a military strike may readily be neutralized through nonlethal means such as capture. Do the attacking forces have an obligation to pursue that nonlethal alternative? The Article defends the duty to employ less restrictive means (“LRM”) in wartime, and it advances several novel arguments in defense of that obligation. In contrast to those who look to external restraints--such as those imposed by international human …

Concluding Observations On Sovereignty In Cyberspace, Gary Corn, Robert Taylor

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In Sorerejgntyin Cyberspace: Lex Lata Vel Non?, Michael Schmitt and Liis Vihul argue that territorial sovereignty is a primary rule of international law that limits cyber activities. They recognize, however, that not all cyber effects constitute violations of territorial sovereignty, and like Rule 4 in the Tallinn Manual 2.0 and its commentary, they acknowledge a distinct lack of consensus among the Tallinn participants on the critical question of applicable thresholds. Problematically, they do not identify the necessary state practice and opinio juris that would be required to establish either the primary rule that they proffer or the existence and contours …

Sovereignty In The Age Of Cyber, Gary Corn

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

International law is a foundational pillar of the modern international order, and its applicability to both state and nonstate cyber activities is, by now, beyond question. However, owing to the unique and rapidly evolving nature of cyberspace, its ubiquitous interconnectivity, its lack of segregation between the private and public sectors, and its incompatibility with traditional concepts of geography, there are difficult and unresolved questions about exactly how international law applies to this domain. Chief among these is the question of the exact role that the principle of sovereignty plays in regulating states' cyber activities.

Under The Radar: The Cost And Benefits Of Wind Energy Through The Lens Of National Security, David N. Cassuto

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines wind energy through the lens of national security. The benefit resides with helping the United States become energy independent. National-security concerns also present a cost because wind energy interferes with military radar, posing a potential threat to the systems that monitor possible attacks. This Article attempts to analyze the overall impact of wind energy while noting the inherent difficulties when so much uncertainty is involved in the process.

Part I of this Article discusses the benefits of wind energy. Part II examines its costs, specifically its interference with radar, and what that means for national security. This …

Section 230’S Liability Shield In The Age Of Online Terrorist, Jaime M. Freilich

Brooklyn Law Review

In recent years, “home grown” terrorists—individuals inspired to violence after watching terrorist videos online—have been responsible for devastating attacks in the United States and across Europe. Such terrorist propaganda falls outside the realm of the First Amendment’s protection because it has been proven to indoctrinate attackers, thus inciting imminent lawless action. Seizing on this, victims’ families have brought suits alleging that social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google, provided material support to terrorists in violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). The Communications Decency Act (CDA), however, has served as an impenetrable shield against these claims, protecting social media companies …

Deepfake Videos: When Seeing Isn't Believing, Holly Kathleen Hall

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Videos, known as deepfakes, use readily available software to create a work that shows people saying and doing things they may never have uttered or engaged in. The technology making the videos appear very authentic is advancing at such a rate that people may not be able to detect if the videos are fact or fiction. Given the hasty acceptance of other forms of fake news in society, deepfake videos have the ability to affect the nature of information the public receives about candidates and policies. This study examines the potential use of deepfake videos in the democratic process, analyzes …

Prosecuting The War On Terror In The Trump Administration: The Trump Doctrine: Is There Really A New Sheriff In Town, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Faculty Articles

After one full year in office, it is time to examine the actions taken by the Trump Administration in light of its legal and policy structures for dealing with the War on Terror and the companion problem of radical Islamic terrorism-both the domestic and international threat. In this context, two general concepts bear examination. First, is there a significant change in the Trump Administration from the policies of the Bush and Obama Administrations vis a vis prosecuting the War on Terror and dealing with domestic jihadists? Second, has the Trump strategic vision and attendant actions contributed in any significant way …

Yes, There Is Such A Thing As Too Much Transparency, Sam F. Halabi

Faculty Publications

In a world where secret meetings and resulting agreements seem particularly suspect, it might be tempting to think that the growing norm of transparency might keep the world a more harmonious place. Woodrow Wilson famously extolled the virtues of "open covenants of peace, openly arrived at...." Ashley Deeks, in her recent article, A (Qualified) Defense of Secret Agreements, asks us to think again of this norm and dictum. Her article is one I like a lot, and I hope others active in the study and shaping of international law and international relations do as well.

Is The President A Traitor? A Legal Analysis, Noah Kupferberg

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

If War Is Everywhere, Then Must The Law Be Nowhere?, Alexander K.A. Greenawalt

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This response focuses on one of the most difficult questions posed by Rosa Brooks's How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: How should the erosion of the war / peace dichotomy impact the justifications for the use of lethal force by the United States government and what, if any, role is there for law in this context? While Brooks is unambiguously critical of Bush administration legal policies that asserted expansive executive war powers, she is less certain about the Obama administration's own reliance on the war paradigm to justify its targeted killing policies. While describing these policies as …

How The War On Terror Is Transforming Private U.S. Law, Maryam Jamshidi

UF Law Faculty Publications

In thinking about the War on Terror’s impact on U.S. law, what most likely comes to mind are its corrosive effects on public law, including criminal law, immigration, and constitutional law. What is less appreciated is whether and how the fight against terrorism has also impacted private law. As this Article demonstrates, the War on Terror has had a negative influence on private law, specifically on torts, where it has upended long-standing norms, much as it has done in the public law context.

Case law construing the private right of action under the Antiterrorism Act of 1992, 18 U.S.C. § …