National Security Law

The academic field of national security law began more than three decades ago at the University of Virginia School of Law when Professor John Norton Moore recognized a need to prepare law students to deal with legal problems involving the national security of the United States and began offering a course entitled "law and national security." In 1981, the editors co-founded the Center for National Security Law (CNSL) at Virginia, and in 1990 the first edition of this landmark text was published. Since then, CNSL has run more than a dozen summer National Security Law Institutes to help prepare professors and government practitioners to teach or work in this growing new field, and courses dealing with national security law are being taught at most American law schools.

This remarkable volume includes contributions by more than two dozen scholars and practitioners from the United States and abroad, including a judge on the International Court of Justice, a former Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the senior national security lawyer at the FBI, a former Legal Adviser to the National Security Council, and distinguished professors from major universities. In addition to traditional topics like war powers, terrorism, intelligence, arms control, treaties, human rights, immigration, trade, environmental law, and freedom of expression, the second edition includes chapters on space law, homeland defense, information warfare, and a revolutionary new theoretical approach to the origins of war — making National Security Law the most comprehensive text in the field.

"Perhaps what sets this casebook apart from others in the genre is its extensive scope. Its thirty-two chapters cover not only 'some of the central public preoccupations of our time—military force, arms control, free speech, and terrorism—but also a number of more esoteric corners of the law,' which at times have gained wide attention and scrutiny. Indeed, every conceivable aspect of national security law and policy, from 'The Use of Force in International Relations: Norms Concerning the Initiation of Coercion' to 'War Crimes and Tribunals' to 'The Control of International Terrorism' and 'Immigration Law and National Security,' is included. The second edition of National Security Law sets the standard in its field and will no doubt facilitate 'an interdisciplinary understanding' of what Moore and Turner 'believe to be one of the most important public policy developments now facing the nation.' Without question, Moore and Turner have succeeded in producing a comprehensive, well organized, extremely well written casebook filled with seminal cases, insightful commentary, and stimulating questions for discussion. National Security Law is likely to rapidly become a staple at law schools and advanced degree programs across America and will no doubt be relied on by scholars, students, and practitioners for years to come." — Naval War College Review, Winter 2006