Guides: National Security Law Research Guide: Secondary Sources

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Secondary Sources

Unless you are an expert in this area of law, or already have a citation to a specific document, it is probably a good idea to begin your research with a treatise, journal article, or other secondary source. These can provide citations to primary authorities and explain how they fit together. Once you have citations to some primary authorities, you should complete your research by updating them, making sure the cited cases have not been overruled, or the statutes repealed.

Treatises, Handbooks, Casebooks, and Collections

I. Collections of National Security Secondary Sources

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.
HeinOnline Military Law Collection 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.
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.
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.
JSTOR: Security Studies
This database has a collection of various security studies resources, including historical and contemporary studies of matters concerning domestic and foreign national security.
Terrorism: Documents of International and Local Control
These two sets, made up of more than 100 volumes, collect significant U.S.-generated documents covering all aspects of terrorism and its prevention. Types of documents include government reports, executive orders, speeches, court proceedings, and position papers.

II. Treatises

Lexis: Military Criminal Justice: Practice & Procedure
Definitive resource that covers both substantive and procedural aspects of the law.
The Military Law Sourcebook (2014) (print)
This resource provides acts, codes, and conventions governing U.S. military law.
Hein: Intelligence Community Legal Reference Book (2020)
This book provides a compilation of national security documents including legislation, executive orders, reports, and guidelines.
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.
The U.S. Intelligence Community Law Sourcebook (2019 ed.) (print)
This book acts as a guide to important national security law source material, including relevant statutes, intelligence authorization acts, executive orders, attorney general and the director of national intelligence guidelines, and proposed significant legislation affecting the U.S. intelligence community.
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.
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.

IV. Relevant Subject Headings

You may find other books on national security or military law by searching the Library's catalog using keywords or the following subject headings:

Dictionaries

Useful Web Sites

For a list of relevant agency websites, see the section on Agency Regulations. The web sites below may also be useful to you:

Annotated Bibliography of Government Documents Related to the Threat of Terrorism and the Attacks of September 11, 2001
This first of two volumes of an annotated bibliography of Federal documents is intended as a resource for libraries and other centers of information in providing users with materials that will inform them about critical issues regarding the threat of terrorism and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Last updated in April 2022.
Federation of American Scientists (FAS)
The Federation of American Scientists is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the worldwide arms race and avoiding the use of nuclear weapons. It was founded by members of the Manhattan Project. Its web site is an excellent source of analytical materials and government documents on national security, nuclear and biological weapons, government secrecy, and space policy.
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.
Government Executive
Govexec.com is the web site of the magazine Government Executive. It publishes articles on homeland security, defense, procurement, and government employment.
LawFare
Covers the hard national security issues such as terrorism, 9/11, cybersecurity and more.
War on the Rocks
War on the Rocks is a platform for analysis and debate on strategy, defense, and foreign affairs. It features articles and podcasts produced by an array of writers with deep experience in these matters: top notch scholars who study war, those who have served or worked in war zones, and more than a few who have done it all.

National Security Law Research Guide

Contents