Transparency, Secrecy, and Monitoring in Foreign Relations Law
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Room 3000 | ALL DAY
Duke Law School
This roundtable explored the general tradeoffs of transparency and secrecy in foreign relations law, and the ability of Congress and the courts to monitor executive branch conduct relating to foreign affairs.
The executive branch has significant constitutional authority relating to foreign relations, and Congress often delegates substantial additional discretion to the executive branch in this area. As either a supplement or alternative to direct regulation of the executive branch’s foreign relations conduct, Congress frequently imposes transparency requirements. In theory, such transparency is designed both to deter problematic conduct and to allow Congress to monitor and detect potential legal or policy problems. Full transparency is not always possible or desirable, however, and sometimes secrecy is justified. Claims about the need for secrecy, however, can be abused by the executive branch. Whether information is fully transparent or reported in secret, there are significant questions about Congress’s and the courts’ ability and incentives to monitor executive branch conduct.
Participants
Curtis Bradley, Duke Law School
Elena Chachko, Harvard Law School
Ashley Deeks, University of Virginia Law School
Mary DeRosa, Georgetown Law Center
Kristen Eichensehr, UCLA Law School
Jean Galbraith, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Monica Hakimi, University of Michigan Law School
Oona Hathaway, Yale Law School
Rebecca Ingber, Boston University Law School
Andrew Keller, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Martin Lederman, Georgetown Law Center
Kaeten Mistry, University of East Anglia
Jide Nzelibe, Northwestern Law School
Andrew Olson, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
David Pozen, Columbia Law School
Dakota Rudesill, Ohio State Law School
Rahul Sagar, New York University Law School
Sudha Setty, Western New England Law School
Ganesh Sitaraman, Vanderbilt Law School
Paul Stephan, University of Virginia Law School
Matthew Waxman, Columbia Law School