The Center for Global Legal Challenges sponsors an annual reading group in addition to courses related to international law, national security law, and foreign relations law. The featured course of the Center, the Seminar on International Law and Foreign Relations Lawyering, provides students with the opportunity to write research papers and produce published work on a broad range of issues central to current global legal debates.
Seminar on International Law and Foreign Relations Lawyering
This course, which has been offered annually since 2009, offers students an opportunity to study, research, and participate in current legal debates over international law, national security law, and foreign relations law. Students work on research topics selected by Professor Hathaway and the class from among those presented by U.S. congressional staff, executive branch lawyers, or nonprofit groups working on issues relating to international law, national security law, or foreign relations law. In past years, the seminar has researched topics including the law of cyber-attack, the power of the U.S. government to detain terrorism suspects, the scope of the Treaty Power, the relationship between human rights law and the law of armed conflict, extraterritorial application of human rights obligations, the law governing the U.S. targeted killing program, and the legal requirements of various human rights treaties. The seminar has also submitted amicus briefs to the D.C. Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court. Students work both individually and in small groups to write reports on selected topics and, as appropriate, produce recommendations for reform. Students also have an opportunity to meet with attorneys and policymakers who are directly involved in the legal debates on which the class is working.
Spring 2025 National Security Reading Group
National security intersects with a wide range of economic, political, and social issues. This reading group explores current and emerging perspectives at the intersection of national security, law, and geopolitics. Students scrutinize the logic and limits of a national security approach to regional and global challenges during a period of administrative transition in the United States. Beyond discussing a range of policy areas—including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, U.S.-China relations, emerging technology, and economic statecraft—students have the opportunity to learn from guest speakers across legal academia and practice.