Kristen Eichensehr

  • Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law
  • Director, National Security Law Center

Kristen Eichensehr is the Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor and director of the National Security Law Center at the University of Virginia School of Law. She writes and teaches about cybersecurity, foreign relations, international law and national security law. Her work has addressed, among other issues, the attribution of state-sponsored cyberattacks, the important roles that private parties play in cybersecurity, the constitutional allocation of powers between the president and Congress in foreign relations, and the role of foreign sovereign amici in the Supreme Court. She received the 2018 Mike Lewis Prize for National Security Law Scholarship for her article, “Courts, Congress, and the Conduct of Foreign Relations.” 

Eichensehr is a member of the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Law and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine Forum on Cyber Resilience. She serves on the editorial boards of Just Security and the Journal of National Security Law & Policy and previously edited the American Journal of International Law’s section on Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law. She is a faculty senior fellow that the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, as well as an affiliate of the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation and Stanford Law’s Center for Internet and Society. 

Eichensehr clerked for Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Sonia Sotomayor of the Supreme Court of the United States and for Judge Merrick B. Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She also served as special assistant to the legal adviser of the U.S. Department of State and practiced at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C.

 

Education

  • J.D.
    Yale Law School
    2008
  • M.Phil.
    University of Cambridge
    2005
  • A.B.
    Harvard University
    2004

Books

Stopping Wars and Making Peace: Studies in International Intervention (edited with W. Michael Reisman), Brill (2009).

Book Chapters

Defend Forward and Attribution, in The United States’ Defend Forward Cyber Strategy: A Comprehensive Legal Assessment, Oxford University Press (2022).

Articles & Reviews

National Security Creep in Corporate Transactions (with Cathy Hwang), 123 Columbia Law Review 549–614 (2023).
Not Illegal: The SolarWinds Incident and International Law, 33 European Journal of International Law 1263 (2022).
Ukraine, Cyberattacks, and the Lessons for International Law, 116 American Journal of International Law Unbound (2022).
CFIUS Preemption, 13 Harvard National Security Journal 1–24 (2022).
Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law, 116 American Journal of International Law (2022).
The Youngstown Canon: Vetoed Bills and the Separation of Powers, 70 Duke Law Journal 1245–1320 (2021).
Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law, 115 American Journal of International Law (2021).
The Law & Politics of Cyberattack Attribution, 67 UCLA Law Review 520–598 (2020).
Digital Switzerlands, 167 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 665–732 (2019).
Courts, Congress, and the Conduct of Foreign Relations, 85 University of Chicago Law Review 609–675 (2018).
Data Extraterritoriality, 95 Texas Law Review See Also 145–160 (2017).
Public-Private Cybersecurity, 95 Texas Law Review 467–538 (2017).
Foreign Sovereigns as Friends of the Court, 102 Virginia Law Review 289–366 (2016).
Giving Up on Cybersecurity, 64 UCLA Law Review Discourse 320–339 (2016).
Cyberwar and International Law Step Zero, 50 Texas International Law Journal 357–380 (2015).
The Cyber-Law of Nations, 103 Georgetown Law Journal 317–380 (2015).
Review of "Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare" (reviewing Michael N. Schmitt ed., Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare) 108 American Journal of International Law 585–589 (2014).
Treaty Termination and the Separation of Powers, 53 Virginia Journal of International Law 247–308 (2013).
Note, Defending Nationals Abroad: Assessing the Lawfulness of Forcible Hostage Rescues, 48 Virginia Journal of International Law 451–484 (2008).
Note, Targeting Tehran: Assessing the Lawfulness of Preemptive Strikes Against Nuclear Facilities, 11 UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs 59–98 (2007).
Treason's Return, 110 Yale Law Journal Pocket Part 229 (2007).

Reports & Datasets

Cyberattack Attribution as Empowerment and Constraint, Hoover Institution Aegis Paper Series (2021).

Op-Eds, Blogs, Shorter Works

Cyberattack Attribution and International Law, Just Security (July 24, 2020).

Current Courses

All Courses

Cybersecurity Law & Policy
Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law
Foreign Relations Law
Legislation & Regulation

IN THE NEWS

01/16/2023
01/03/2023
12/10/2021
12/15/2020
Ukraine and Challenges for U.S. National Security

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