Call for Participants: The 7th Annual National Security Law Workshop (May 15-16, Charlottesville)

I'm very pleased to announce the call for participants in the 7th Annual National Security Law Workshop, which will take place this year on May 15 and 16 in Charlottesville, Virginia. As in the past, Geoff Corn and I are the co-hosts, and the sponsors are the International Committee of the Red Cross, South Texas College of Law, and the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas--Austin. So, what is this all about?  The National Security Law Workshop, now in its seventh year, is a unique event. It brings civilian law faculty, Judge Advocates, ICRC representatives, and other government legal advisers together for two days of dialogue on national security law topics.  But what precisely goes on? Format:

This year’s event will have a slightly different format than in years past. Specifically, we are placing a greater emphasis on roundtable discussions. Towards this end, we hereby solicit proposals to lead a roundtable discussion of a particular topic. Proposals should include a brief (no more than one page) discussion explaining the topic and its significance. And while we anticipate that a number of the discussion sessions will focus on the law relating to armed conflict, we also encourage proposals on a broader array of national security topics. If the proposal is selected the proponent will be expected to:

1. draft a 5-10 page ‘point paper’ framing the issue for discussion, to be distributed no later than the end of April;
2. act as co-leader of the discussion during that session (we will select an additional participant to assist in this capacity).

In addition to the roundtable discussions, we will continue our tradition of workshopping draft articles using a discussant model (albeit on a more limited scale than in the past, and with a special emphasis on true drafts—i.e., papers that will not be accepted for publication by the time of the event in May).

Finally, we also will accept requests to attend from individuals who are not submitting either a roundtable topic or a paper, but who do want to take part in the general discussions.

Applications:  Please submit your proposals or attendance requests to both Bobby Chesney (rchesney@law.utexas.edu), and Geoff Corn (gcorn@stcl.edu) by close of business on March 15, 2014 Location: Happily, the JAG School in Charlottesville has once again been kind enough to let us use their terrific conference room as the location for the event (we held the event there a few years back, and it went wonderfully). Expenses:  The good news is that there is no registration fee or paperwork for those who are selected to attend (nor is there any CLE credit, alas). That said, all attendees will be responsible for their own travel, lodging, and related expenses. Once selections are made, we will provide further details on recommended accommodations and other logistical details.