GOVT 193 CM - Presidential War Powers

This course is a research seminar on presidential war powers. It focuses on the legal issues surrounding the use of force by American presidents, including whether the president may on his own authority introduce American armed forces into combat overseas (as many presidents have done), and what powers the president may exercise domestically when the nation is at war. May he, for example, suspend habeas corpus, relocate and intern American citizens, seize private property for military purposes, order “unlawful combatants” to be tried by military tribunals, or spy on the communications of American citizens with foreign enemies - all of which American presidents have done. An overarching issue throughout is the perennial tension between law (“a government of laws and not of men” - Massachusetts Constitution of 1780) and human discretion (“the good of the society requires, that several things should be left to the discretion of him, that has the Executive power” - John Locke, 1689).

Prerequisite: GOVT 020 CM

Offered: Every other year

Credit: 1

Course Number: GOVT193 CM