Guides: National Security Law Research Guide: Introduction

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Introduction

This guide is intended as a starting point for research in U.S. federal military and national security law. It includes both primary and secondary materials, in both print and electronic formats. It covers topics such as military justice, border security, federal emergency and war powers, intelligence law, and the USA PATRIOT and Homeland Security Acts. It does not cover veterans' law or state laws such as the state emergency powers acts. It also excludes international law. Other library research guides that might be of interest to you include:

National Security or Military Law on Lexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg Law

Bloomberg Privacy & Data Security Practice Center
The Privacy & Data Security Law Resource Center provides in-depth news and analysis covering federal, state, and international developments, including new regulations and news on enforcement actions, court decisions and litigation.
Lexis: Military & Military Justice
The military law practice area contains military cases, decisions, and guidance, statutes, and law reviews focusing on topics relating to veterans and armed forces.
Westlaw: Military Law
The military law practice area contains military cases, decisions, and guidance, the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and law reviews focusing on topics relating to veterans and armed forces.

Key Resources - Electronic

Foreign Intelligence Law Collection (Georgetown University Law Center)
The collection includes foreign intelligence-related statutory and regulatory instruments; legislative histories; publicly available and declassified opinions and orders issued by the FISC and FISCR; FISA-related cases in non-specialized Article III courts; statutorily-required reports on the operation of FISA and formal correspondence between FISC and Congress; and an annotated bibliography of secondary sources related to FISA, FISC/FISCR, and foreign intelligence law.
Digital National Security Archive
A full-text database of over 50 core collections of declassified government documents covering U.S. policy toward critical world events, including their military, intelligence, diplomatic and human rights dimensions, from 1945 to the present. Each core collection is focused on one topic, e.g., Cuban Missile Crisis, Iran-Contra Affair, Terrorism and U.S. Policy, and includes diverse policy documents supplemented by contextual and reference material.
HeinOnline Military Legal Resources
This collection aims to collect every current and historical military legal document and resource needed by judge advocates, law school professors, and members of the general public interested in military law
Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL)
The Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL) is the nation’s premier collection of documents related to homeland security policy, strategy, and organizational management.
Lexis: Military Criminal Justice: Practice & Procedure
Definitive resource that covers both substantive and procedural aspects of the law.
Westlaw: Guide to Homeland Security
This two-volume set provides coverage of acts and regulations in the emerging area of homeland security. It provides the full contents of acts such as the USA Patriot Act and the Bioterrorism Preparedness Act as well as analysis which helps you comply with the new requirements.
Westlaw: National Security Investigations and Procedures
This resource presents the law governing investigations conducted by the United States government to acquire information about foreign threats to national security. This treatise explores the full background of National Security Investigations, both from a pre-911 and a post-911 perspective, providing a powerful tool for any attorney handling a case involving a national security investigation or prosecution.

Key Resources - Print

Cybersecurity and Privacy Law in a Nutshell (2019)
This nutshell presents case law, federal, state and international legislation, administrative actions and regulations, and relevant policy considerations relating to cybersecurity and privacy law.
Military Law in a Nutshell (4th ed. 2013) (print)
This study aid is a succinct summary of military law, and includes recent changes to laws such as the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
National Security Law: Principles and Policy (2024) (print)
National Security Law is a guide to the legal foundations that support key national security powers: diplomatic, intelligence, military, economic, and criminal. Essential sources included are constitutional text, judicial opinions, statutes, and policies.
National Security Law & Policy (3d ed. 2015) (print)
This book includes new chapters on law and the cyber domain, the control of terrorism assets, lawfare, detention, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as well as chapters on traditional subjects of national security law such as use of force, war powers, international and domestic terrorism, intelligence, arms control, homeland security, human rights, immigration, export controls, environmental law, freedom of expression, and access to national security information.
National Security Law (6th ed. 2016) (print)
National Security Law provides broad exploration of both constitutional and domestic law issues in National Security. The authors use expressive and descriptive text to provide context and informative historical and background information as well as thoughtful treatment of related international law topics.