Prerequisite: None

Exam Type: No Exam

The last few decades have seen tremendous growth in the executive branch’s assertions of power over national security, but Congress also plays an important role in national security law and policymaking. Congress has enabled executive power through broad delegations and continued funding for national security priorities, but faces legal, structural, and political hurdles to meaningfully constraining and shaping the Executive’s expansive use of such powers.

This course will examine Congress’s role in U.S. national security law, exploring both the reasons for Congress’s comparative weakness vis-à-vis the Executive and powers that Congress can assert to check the Executive. Among other topics, the seminar will examine historical sources on congressional power; congressional architecture and mechanics; war powers; emergency powers; Congress’s oversight authorities; the role of the courts in restricting and enabling congressional checks on executive power; and proposals for reform.