April 02, 2008
On Friday, February 29, the St. John’s Journal of Legal
Commentary hosted its Fifteenth Annual Symposium, “The
National Security Constitution: New Threats, New Rules?” The
conference, which was organized by the Journal’s Research and
Symposium Editor Sean Thorsen ’08 and Professor Christopher
J. Borgen, brought together top National Security and
Constitutional Law scholars for a day of thoughtful discussion and
engaging debate.
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The symposium opened with a panel on The Separation of Powers
and the War on Terror, which examined the proper balance of
power between the legislative and executive branches in defining
the country’s response to national security threats.
Professor Timothy
Zick moderated this portion of the symposium, and panelists
included Geoffrey S. Corn, Assistant Professor of Law, South Texas
College of Law; Julian Ku, Associate Professor of Law, Hofstra
University School of Law; Martin S. Lederman, Visiting Professor of
Law, Georgetown University Law Center; and Peter Raven-Hansen, Glen
Earl Weston Research Professor of Law, George Washington University
Law School.
Following the first panel, Associate Academic Dean Andrew J.
Simons introduced keynote speaker Harold Hongju Koh, Dean of
Yale Law School and Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor
of International Law. Dean Koh’s keynote address focused on
the still relevant thesis of his 1990 book The National
Security Constitution: Sharing Power after the Iran-Contra
Affair, and applied the argument to current issues related to
the current Bush presidency and the War on Terror. At the
heart of Dean Koh’s analysis was the argument that the
executive branch has increased its role in foreign policymaking at
the expense of the other branches despite the fact that both the
Constitutional text and historical practice support the view that
the maintenance of national security is a power shared by the
President, Congress, and the courts.
The second panel assessed various options for trying suspected
terrorists including Article III courts, military commissions,
courts martial, and a recently-proposed national security court,.
Professor John Q.
Barrett moderated the discussion among the Honorable Joseph F.
Bianco, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of
New York; Deborah Pearlstein, LAPA Visiting Scholar at the Woodrow
Wilson School for Public and International Affairs, Princeton
University; Glenn M. Sulmasy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Fellow,
Carr Center for Human Rights, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University; and Benjamin Wittes, formerly of the Washington Post
and currently Fellow and Research Director in Public Law,
Governance Studies, Brookings Institute.
The final panel, moderated by Frederick A. Whitney Professor of
Contract Law Mark L.
Movsesian, discussed emerging issues in U.S. national security
policy, such as the threat of cyber-war and cyber-terrorism, the
effectiveness of the laws of armed conflict to address
transnational terrorism, the current administration’s use of
immigration laws to combat terrorism, and the regulation of private
military contractors. Panelists included Duncan B. Hollis,
Associate Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of
Law; Dick Jackson, Special Assistant to the Army Judge Advocate
General for Law of War Matters; Margaret Stock, Associate Professor
, Department of Social Sciences, U.S. Military Academy, West Point;
and Jeffrey K. Walker, Managing Partner, BlueLaw LLP.
The full program is available here.
Papers from the symposium will be published in a forthcoming issue
of the Journal of Legal Commentary.
Contact Information
Christopher J. Borgen
Associate Professor of Law
(718) 990-1982
borgenc@stjohns.edu