Foreign Affairs and the Constitution
This is a course about the constitutional authority of the national government over foreign relations. The course examines the constitutional origins of authority over foreign relations, and the constraints that impact the exercise of that authority, including separation of powers, federalism, and the protection of individual rights. The course proceeds by examining the legal responses to important events in American life, including President Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus, the Vietnam, Kosovo and Persian Gulf Wars, the Iranian hostage crisis, the covert war in Central America, and the Iran-Contra affair, as well as recent tensions between civil liberties and responses to the war on terrorism. Topics include the President’s recognition of foreign states, congressional authority over immigration and appropriations, the war powers and covert action, treaty negotiation and enforcement, national security and the First Amendment, the extraterritorial application of the Constitution, judicial review of foreign affairs questions (i.e., foreign sovereign immunity, the political question and act of state doctrines), and customary international law.