I promised last week to give some thoughts on Judge Henry Kennedy's recent opinion in Hentif as soon as I had a chance to read it. I was busy running some events over the past few days and only just got ...

I often disagree with Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, but this column strikes me as right on. Thiessen bewails the lack of serious debate in the Republican primaries on national security issues,...

In 2002 the Bush administration received a lot of heat for its flexible understanding of the imminence requirement of the self-defense doctrine in international law in connection with modern terrorism.  ...

A divided 11th Circuit panel has issued a lengthy opinion (112 pages in pdf, with the dissent) affirming the conviction of  Jose Padilla, Adham Hassoun, and Kifah Jayyousi, and granting the government's ...

Friday afternoon’s oral argument in Suleiman saw pretty even questioning of counsel for both sides from an interested panel.  Judges Merrick Garland, Thomas Griffith and David Tatel pressed Abdulrahman A...

Britain amended its universal jurisdiction law last week to require private individuals who seek arrest warrants for foreign government officials for human rights offenses to obtain the consent of Britai...

On September 14, General John R. Allen, who succeeded David Petraeus as the commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan, presided over the change of the command of Rule of Law Field Force – Afghanistan from Bri...

Below Gabor Rona has a sharp response to my earlier post on Charlie Savage’s story on the latest round of Johnson v.

The Keynote Address begins with a brief introduction from Jack. He notes that one thing extraordinary about Savage is his ability to extract information from government officials and the clarity with w...

Prof. David Barron kicks off the last panel discussion of the conference, focusing on the Presidency in the Post-9/11 World.  He begins by noting that it is not surprising that a serious national securit...

The afternoon session of Day 2 of the conference begins with introductory remarks from Gabby Blum, the moderator of the afternoon’s first panel.  She asks the panel to discuss the utility of force; what ...

Session 4 begins with a brief introduction of the panelists from Prof. Dick Fallon, the panel’s moderator.  Panelists include Prof.  Phil Heymman, Ben Wizner, director of litigation of the ACLU’s Nationa...

Day 2 of the HLS-Brookings Program on Law and National Security conference begins with Prof. Blum  introducing Chibli Mallat, moderator of the first panel of the morning.  He says he would like to point ...

I have little to add to Jack's excellent post yesterday about Charlie Savage's fascinating New York Times story on the latest dispute within the administration on the scope and reach of the AUMF. But I d...

An update: we've attended today's oral argument in Suleiman v. Obama, at the D.C. Circuit.  For scheduling reasons, however, we'll have to delay posting a recap of the argument until Monday.  Stay tuned ...

Here is the prepared text, released by the White House, of John Brennan's speech at the Harvard Law School-Brookings conference now under way in Cambridge. I will post video, including of the very intere...

Professor Blum welcomes the audience back and invites Professor Dan Meltzer to introduce John Brennan. Meltzer provides a short biography for Brennan and notes that he has been a key actor in shaping the...