LAWS2202 · Law

The Constitution and National Security

Boston College Law School

This course will examine the constitutional and statutory law that governs U.S. national security policy and practice. The course will focus on the scope of executive power under the U.S. Constitution and its relation to Congress and the Courts in managing and protecting national security. The Course will focus on the Constitution's allocation of national security authority, the foreign relations powers, and war powers among the three branches of the federal government. The course will focus on specific issues arising from past and ongoing counterterrorism activities including detention, surveillance, interrogation, and targeted killing. It will also focus on theories of executive power, judicial review, and the role of rights as checks on the implementation of national security policy. In addition, the course will examine how constitutional and statutory authority relates to the role of international law in U.S. courts and the role of courts more generally inestablishing boundaries for national security policy. The course will examine court cases, executive memos, and other historical and legislative materials in addition to secondary theoretical literature.