Executive Branch
Just Security’s expert authors provide analysis of the U.S. executive branch related to national security, rights, and the rule of law. Analysis and informational resources focus on the executive branch’s powers and their limits, and the actions of the president, administrative agencies, and federal officials.
4,711 Articles
Beyond Customary International Law: What Jesner Can Learn From Corporate Criminal Liability for International Crimes
Ed. note. This article is the latest in our series on the U.S. Supreme Court case Jesner. v. Arab Bank, a case that is slated to resolve the question of whether corporations can…
Time to Lift the Blockade of Qatar
The Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) annual summit was abruptly cut short in Kuwait last week, leaving open the essential question of whether the blockade of Qatar imposed in…
Episode 49 of the National Security Law Podcast: Interrogation, Detention, Prosecution, and Targeting
In this week’s episode, Bobby Chesney and I pick up the thread on a handful of familiar issues, and introduce a few new ones as well. Interrogation: The topic is a blend,…
Trump’s Year of Secrecy
In a representative democracy, the people are supposed to supervise the government’s activities and hold political leaders accountable for their decisions. That oversight…
How to Fix the US Military’s Broken Targeting System
The recent groundbreaking investigation by the New York Times into civilian casualties in Iraq uncovered a shocking truth for the many Americans who believe the United States is…
“Congressional Authorizations on Use of Force,” by Defense Dep’t Principal Deputy General Counsel William Castle (Full Text)
On Monday evening, William S. Castle, the Pentagon’s top lawyer, gave a speech entitled, “Congressional Authorizations on Use of Force?,” at the New York City Bar Association.…
Incomplete Justice: The Officer Who Killed Walter Scott Should Have Gotten Life Behind Bars
On Thursday, Michael Slager, a former police officer with the North Charleston, S.C. Police Department, was sentenced to twenty years in federal prison—not life imprisonment.…
Trump’s National Security Strategy is Decidedly Non-Trumpian
The Trump administration is preparing to roll out its new National Security Strategy, a document meant to guide its national security policies. Yet a Trump administration staffer…
Why Microsoft Challenged the Right Law: A Response to Orin Kerr
This coming spring, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the United States v. Microsoft – a case that will determine the authority of U.S. law enforcement to compel, via…
Former Prosecutor Renato Mariotti’s Tweet Threads on National Security (Dec. 1-8)
Here is an exposition and analysis of some of this week’s national security-related threads authored by Just Security Editorial Board member and former federal prosecutor Renato…
Thoughts on Erik Prince’s Proposal to Privatize Intelligence Gathering
This week we learned, via the Intercept, of Erik Prince’s proposal to provide the Trump Administration with a private intelligence outfit. According to the Intercept, “The…
The Collateral Costs of a Logan Act Prosecution
Michael Flynn’s plea hearing last Friday—which I had the good fortune to witness—was accompanied by an extraordinary “Statement of the Offense.” The document indicates…