National Security Law Center
Research
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 provoked the imposition of economic sanctions that are unprecedented in their swiftness, severity, and... MORE
National security review of corporate transactions has long been a relatively sleepy corner of regulatory policy. But as governments merge economic... MORE
In 2021, the United States and other governments formally blamed Russia for a wide-ranging hacking campaign that breached the update process for... MORE
Machine learning algorithms hold out the promise of making sense of vast quantities of information, detecting patterns, and identifying anomalies... MORE
When a state suffers an internationally wrongful act at the hands of another state, international law allows the injured state to respond in a... MORE
Spurred by concerns about a Chinese-owned wind farm, Texas recently enacted the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act to prohibit companies and... MORE
Some who should know argue, and I find plausible, that among these aspects of AI, accumulation and organization of data sets is the most significant... MORE
As presidents make ever more expansive claims of executive power, Congress’s ability and willingness to counter the executive is limited. That makes... MORE
When a state seeks to defend itself against a cyberattack, must it first identify the perpetrator responsible? The US policy of “defend forward” and... MORE
When a state suffers an internationally wrongful act at the hands of another state, international law allows the injured state to respond in a... MORE
Debates about how best to check executive branch abuses of secrecy focus on three sets of actors that have access to classified information and that... MORE
Reason-giving plays an important role in our system of governance. Agencies provide public reasons when making rules so that individuals affected by... MORE
Attribution of cyberattacks requires identifying those responsible for bad acts, prominently including states, and accurate attribution is a crucial... MORE
In recent years, legislative bodies such as the U.S. Congress and the U.K. Parliament have struggled to maintain a role for themselves in government... MORE
The concept of checks and balances is a core tenet of our democracy; we fear letting any single institution become overly powerful or insufficiently... MORE
Big data technology and machine learning techniques play a growing role across all areas of modern society. Machine learning provides the ability to... MORE
Harmful lies are nothing new. But the ability to distort reality has taken an exponential leap forward with “deep fake” technology. This capability... MORE
U.S. technology companies are increasingly standing as competing power centers that challenge the primacy of governments. This power brings with it... MORE
How must states’ intelligence communities (ICs) approach their international law obligations? From the perspective of international law itself, the... MORE
Actors in our criminal justice system increasingly rely on computer algorithms to help them predict how dangerous certain people and certain... MORE
Calls for public-private partnerships to address U.S. cybersecurity failures have become ubiquitous. But the academic literature and public debate... MORE
This symposium discussion of the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review focuses on the newly enacted Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA). Panelists address... MORE
Technology has facilitated both the amount of trade secrets that are now stored electronically, and the rise of cyber intrusions. Together, this has... MORE
The Bush Administration took a maximalist approach to the jus ad bellum and jus in bello, staking out broad claims about what international law... MORE
Recent years have witnessed a dramatic increase in digital information and connected devices, but constant revelations about hacks make painfully... MORE
Judicial and scholarly discussions about checks and balances almost always focus on actions and reactions by domestic actors. At least in the... MORE
Secret international agreements have a bad reputation. Ever since states misused secret agreements during World War I, commentators have condemned... MORE
Intelligence activity is — or, more accurately, was — the last bastion of foreign relations unconstrained by international law. States could steal... MORE
As the U.N. Charter’s drafters might have predicted, various categories of cases have arisen since 1945 in which states have sought to use force in... MORE
Against all hope for change, President Barack Obama has been a war president and a vigorous one at that. This Article considers the legality of his... MORE
One of the most contested questions in the jus ad bellum is whether and when it is lawful for a state to use force unilaterally before it suffers... MORE
Concerns about cyberwar, cyberespionage, and cybercrime have burst into focus in recent years. The United States and China have traded accusations... MORE
As part of a symposium on cyberwar, this invited contribution explores the challenges that new technologies pose for international law. Borrowing... MORE
With the Habeas Clause standing as a curious exception, the Constitution seems mysteriously mute regarding federal authority during invasions and... MORE
Widespread disclosures about Western intelligence activities have shone a harsh spotlight on intelligence oversight. Many now doubt that the best-... MORE
Edward Snowden’s leaks laid bare the scope and breadth of the electronic surveillance that the U.S. National Security Agency and its foreign... MORE
Over the course of the twentieth century, the effect of state boundaries as hard-and-fast limits on judicial and legislative jurisdiction steadily... MORE
Several states have been engaged for years in armed conflicts against non-state actors outside their territory. These conflicts implicate a wide... MORE
In his insightful article, "The Dangers of Surveillance," 126 Harvard Law Review 1934 (2013), Neil Richards offers a framework for evaluating the... MORE
Many celebrate international law as a way to compel states to protect human rights. Often it serves this role. But sometimes it has the reverse... MORE
The unbounded geography of cyber-conflict poses particular challenges to state sovereignty. Like certain other states, the United States has... MORE
The national security deference debate has reached a stalemate. Those favoring extensive deference to executive branch national security decisions... MORE
United States military forces have been taken a very high-profile role in the development of both the Iraqi and Afghan legal systems for several... MORE
Law features more prominently in warfare today than in any time in memory. Stories about the legality of detaining “unlawful combatants” or “... MORE
I attempt to identify the central conceptual and methodological challenges that must be overcome if the risk assessment of terrorism is to make the... MORE
Non-state actors, including terrorist groups, regularly launch attacks against states, often from external bases. When a victim state seeks to... MORE
No form of war is more closely tied to law than counterinsurgency. Counterinsurgency is, at its core, a contest for “legitimacy,” and the legitimacy... MORE
This Essay, written for a symposium commemorating the twentieth anniversary of Employment Division v. Smith, examines the politics of free exercise... MORE
A new domestic intelligence network has made vast amounts of data available to federal and state agencies and law enforcement officials. The network... MORE
This article is based on a chapter written for The Rule of Law Handbook: A Practitioner's Guide, a handbook used as a text at The Judge Advocate... MORE
Scholars and politicians insist that declarations of war are relics of the past. As proof, they note that in over two centuries the United States has... MORE
Absent from war-powers scholarship is an account of when war and military powers separate and when they overlap. Making arguments sounding in text,... MORE
On October 11, 2006, the Department of Justice indicted Adam Gadahn on charges of treason and providing material support to a designated foreign... MORE
In 1981, Israel launched a preemptive attack on the Iraqi Osiraq nuclear reactor. Now a similar strike is being considered against Iranian nuclear... MORE
The Court's docket last Term included five cases directly presenting questions of international law. Republic of Austria v. Altmann raised issues of... MORE
