Cases and Materials on Us Law and National Security: U.s. Law And National Security

The field of national security law is active and increasingly important as we progress into the 21st century. Whether it be threats from foreign governments, terrorist groups, militias, or individual citizens, it is increasingly important that works such as this one chronicle the cases which have addressed the issues protecting the citizens of the United States, our infrastructure and thus,our democratic society.

Professor Sievert has produced an outstanding book on current issues in national security law which will be of great interest and relevance to legal researchers, as well as advanced pre law and graduate history students and any citizen that loves to read American history. The cases he presents and analyzes, all with an eye to their future impact on U.S. policy, have evolved from some of the most dramatic events in the 20th Century, the Japanese exclusion in 1942, the prosecution of the Rosenbergs and Wen Ho Lee, the publication of the Pentagon papers, the investigation of the World Trade Center bombing, the capture and trial of Manuel Noriega, Oliver North, and Iran Contra, Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing and Congress' attempt to use the courts to stop the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, nd Yugoslavia. These cases are contained in chapters which include key judicial opinions and perceptive notes discussing the law related to Espionage, domestic and foreign Terrorism, media exposure of government secrets, U.S. corporate export of sensitive technology, intelligence surveillance of American citizens, and the critical questions of the President's constitutional power to act domestically and internationally in a crisis. The real events discussed in this book highlight the constant conflicts between the need to protect our national security while attempting to preserve our fundamental constitutional right, which must be continuously resolved to insure the survival of our nation.

The cases in this work are sequenced in sections, which track these specific areas. The government's emergency power is then analyzed in separate chapters that focus on the tension between congressional and executive authority, and the legal justifications for using American force to protect our national security. All legal researchers will find this work both informative and valuable towards a better understanding of an emerging area of the law.