Armed Conflict Congress Executive Branch Foreign Relations & International Law

Constitutional War Powers: A “Casebook Chapter”

Matthew Waxman
Monday, September 21, 2020, 12:03 PM

Professor Stephen Griffin (of Tulane) and I have posted to SSRN what we’re calling our free “model casebook chapter” on constitutional war powers.

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Professor Stephen Griffin (of Tulane) and I have posted to SSRN what we’re calling our free “model casebook chapter” on constitutional war powers. As we explain in a note up front, it is intended for use in Constitutional Law I classes that cover separation of powers. Others might find it useful for courses in National Security Law or Foreign Relations Law, or perhaps for graduate courses in U.S. foreign policy. It reflects a pedagogical preference for integrating a study of war-initiation with other issues like presidential and congressional powers in wartime, and it emphasizes historical practice among the political branches while keeping very short the primary document excerpts—especially when it comes to judicial cases. We worked hard to pack a lot into just 20 pages.

We plan to update the chapter periodically in response to feedback, so comments and criticisms are most welcome. It’s available here.

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Armed Conflict Congress Executive Branch Foreign Relations & International Law
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Matthew Waxman

Matthew Waxman

@mattwaxman1
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Matthew Waxman is a law professor at Columbia Law School, where he chairs the National Security Law Program. He also previously co-chaired the Cybersecurity Center at Columbia University's Data Science Institute, and he is Adjunct Senior Fellow for Law and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served in senior policy positions at the State Department, Defense Department, and National Security Council. After graduating from Yale Law School, he clerked for Judge Joel M. Flaum of the U.S. Court of Appeals and Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter.

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