The Conference
In Philosophical Investigations, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgentein famously suggested that language is a public, shared phenomenon, and accordingly, that there is no such thing as a “private language.” A similar doubt might be raised about the possibility of a “private law”: Is a law that is not publicly shared a conceptual contradiction, in the way a private language might be? What are the publicity conditions on the concept of law? How much transparency does the notion of deliberative democracy itself require?
The conference will consider the topic of private laws in light of the recent controversy over secrecy, surveillance, and national security. Of particular recent interest are the debates surrounding the conduct of Edward Snowden and the policies of the National Security Agency (NSA). We will also consider the secret orders of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, as well as the secret memos authored by lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel during the Bush and Obama Administrations, and will compare different methods of maintaining secrecy and their impact on individual privacy rights and on rule of law values more generally.
The conference will address these and related questions in an interdisciplinary roundtable format that seeks to bring together scholars and practitioners from different backgrounds, with an eye to both theoretical and practical illumination.
Schedule
Friday, November 22
| 8:45 – 9:30 a.m. | Breakfast Silverman 147 |
| 9:30 – 11:00 a.m. | Session 1 – From Private Language to Secret Law: Does the Concept of Law Require a Public Social Practice? Silverman 147 Moderator: Claire FinkelsteinReadings:1. Selections from Wittgenstein’s Investigations – The Private Language Argument Excerpt #243-271 2. “Private Language”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 3. Julian Sanchez, “Wittgenstein, Private Language, and Secret Law” 4. Brian Bix, Secrecy and the Nature of Law 5. Duncan MacIntosh, Logically Private Laws 6. Meir Dan Cohen, Acoustic Separation Excerpt 625 – 637 |
| 11:00 – 11:30 a.m. | Break |
11:30 – 1:00 p.m. | Session 2 – Executive Branch Secret Practices and their Conformity to the Rule of Law Silverman 147 Moderator: Connie RosatiReadings:1. Christopher Kutz, “The Repugnance of Secret Law” 2. Michael Skerker, “A Foundation for Government Secrecy” 3. Peter M. Shane, “Executive Branch Self-Policing in Times of Crisis: The Challenges for Conscientious Legal Analysis” 4. U.S. Department of Justice, Legal Authorities Supporting the Activities of the National Security Agency Described by the President |
| 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. | Lunch Levy Conference Room, Silverman 245 |
| 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. | Session 3 – The National Security Agency and the Concept of Privacy Silverman 147 Moderator: Mordechai KremnitzerReadings: 1. Anita Allen, The Virtuous Spy: Privacy as an Ethical Limit 2. Anita Allen, Privacy Law and Society, P 458-461 3. George Lucas, NSA Management Directive #424: Secrecy and Privacy in the Aftermath of Snowden 4. Joint Statement for the Record On Potential Changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) |
| 4:00 – 4:30 p.m. | Break |
| 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. | Session 4 – Keynote Address Michael A. Fitts Auditorium, Golkin 100 Mr. John C. “Chris” Inglis Deputy Director of the National Security Agency Discussant: Mr. Steven Aftergood Project on Government Secrecy, Federation of American Scientists |
| 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. | Cocktail Reception Davis Student Union |
Saturday, November 23
| 8:15 – 9:00 a.m. | Breakfast Silverman 147 |
| 9:00 – 10:30 a.m. | Session 5 – Criminal Suspects and Private Citizens: Inroads on Governmental Spying Silverman 147 Moderator: Ted RugerReadings:1. Robert Litt, “Privacy, Technology and National Security: An Overview of Intelligence Collection” 2. In re Electronic Privacy Information Center, Cato Institute Brief of Amicus Curiae 3. Supreme Court of the United States, United States v. Jones 4. Excerpts from U.S. Government’s briefs in ACLU v. Clapper, No. 13-cv-03994 (S.D.N.Y.) 5. Brian Decker, “The War of Information: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, and the President’s Warrantless-Wiretapping Program” 6. Alison Smale & David Sanger, “Spying Scandal Alters U.S. Ties With Allies and Raises Talk of Policy Shift”, N.Y. Times, Nov. 11, 2013 |
| 10:30 – 11:00 a.m. | Break |
| 11:00 – 12:30 p.m. | Session 6 – Spying and the Judiciary: FISA and Other Special Courts Silverman 147 Moderator: Sudha SettyReadings:1. David Linnan, Deliberative Democracy Versus the Rule of Law: Rasterfahndung and German Anti-terrorism Versus US Intel Approaches 2. CRC Report 40138, Amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act 3. CRC report 42725, Reauthorization of the FISA Amendments Act 4. Title 50 of USC, Presidential Findings 5. An Overview of FISA Reform Options on Capitol Hill (Nov 3, 2013) |
| 12:30 – 2:00 p.m. | Lunch Levy Conference Room, Silverman 245 |
| 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. | Session 7 – Circumventing the National Security State: Private Interest and Access to Information Silverman 147 Moderator: Cary CoglianeseReadings:1. David Pozen, The Leaky Leviathan: Why the Government Condemns and Condones Unlawful Disclosures of Information 2.Geoffrey R. Stone, “Prosecuting the Press for Publishing Classified Information” 3. Kevin Govern,On the Very Idea of Compelling Business Secrecy Through the Law: Obligations and Imperatives Regarding Privacy, Business Data Integrity Preservation, and Identity Theft Prevention 4. “C.I.A. Is Said to Pay AT&T for Call Data” NYT, Nov 7, 2013 5. NSA Surveillance: Telecom Companies Spend Millions Lobbying Congress To Protect Their Interests, Huffington Post, Nov 6, 2013 6. “AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Are Paid Cash By NSA For Your Private Communications” Forbes, Sept, 23, 2013 |
Keynote
Participants
National Security Project, American Civil Liberties Union
Project on Government Secrecy, Federation of American Scientists
University of Minnesota Law School
Shearman & Sterling LLP
University of Pennsylvania Law School
Federal Systems
University of Pennsylvania Law School
Westpoint
Ave Maria School of Law
S.J. Quinney College of Law, the University of Utah
Deputy Director, National Security Agency
National Intelligence Office for Cyber Issues
Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer
Israel Democracy Institute, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Georgetown University Law
University of South Carolina School of Law
University of Southern California
Naval Postgraduate School
Dalhousie University
Paul Menoher & Associates, Inc.
University of Maryland
Cornell University School of Law
Columbia Law School
University of Arizona
Princeton University
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania Law School
University of Pennsylvania Law School
Cato Institute
Western New England School of Law
United States Naval Academy
Cardozo School of Law
U.S. Marine Corps Commanding Officer, NROTC
Attorney-At-Law
Additional Readings
• Barton Gellman & Ashkan Soltani, NSA Tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show, The Washington Post (December 4, 2013)
• Nicole Perlroth, Internet Firms Step Up Efforts to Stop Spying, N.Y. Times (December 5, 2013)
• Anthony Faiola
Britain targets Guardian newspaper over intelligence leaks related to Edward Snowden, Washington Post, (Nov. 30, 2013)
• Nicole Perlroth & John Markoff, NSA May Have Hit Internet Companies at a Weak Spot, N.Y. Times (Nov. 25, 2013)
• Sudha Setty, No More Secret Laws: How Transparency of Executive Branch Legal Policy Doesn’t Let the Terrorists Win Excerpts P 579-581, 588-601
• Ian Fishback
Great Expectations: The Law and Society’s Ability to Generate Behavioral Predictions.
• David Pozen
The Leaky Leviathan: Why the Government Condemns and Condones Unlawful Disclosures of Information, Forthcoming 127 Harvard Law Review (December 2013).
Deep Secrecy
• Marc Ambinder
10 Things You Didn’t Know About the National Security Agency Surveillance Program
• Sen. Al Franken
Summary of the Surveillance Transparency Act of 2013
• Senate Judiciary Committee, Hearing of the Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law
“The Surveillance Transparency Act of 213”
• Scott Shane
No Morsel Too Minuscule for All-Consuming N.S.A.
• The New York Times Editorial Board
British Press Freedom Under Threat
• Marty Lederman
Just Security: Additional documents on telephony records collection (and much more) declassified
• Michelle Richardson
The Guardian: Feinstein’s NSA bill shows she doesn’t have a clue about intelligence reform
• Rep. Dianne Feinstein & Rep. Saxby Chambliss
Comments: FISA Amendments Act Reauthorization Act
• Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner
Synopsis: USA Freedom Act
• Janet Reitman
Snowden and Greenwald: The Men Who Leaked the Secrets
• Charlie Savage
Obama to Call for End to N.S.A.’s Bulk Data Collection
STATUTORY MATERIALS
• U.S. Government
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008
• U.S. Government
S.1452, To enhance transparency for certain surveillance programs authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and for other purposes.
• U.S. Government
Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA Patriot Act) Act of 2001
• President Obama
Remarks by the President at the National Defense University
• FISA Improvements Act
• USA Freedom Act
CASES & BRIEFS
• 9th District Court of Appeals
Mohamed v. Jeppensen Dataplan
• US District Court- New York
Azmy v. DoD
• US District Court: District of Columbia
Excerpt from “Al-Alaqi v. Obama”
• Jim Harper & Randy Barnett brief to the U.S. Supreme Court
In re Electronic Privacy Information Center
• Supreme Court of the United States
Chisholm v. Georgia
• Court of Common-Pleas, Michigan
Entick v. Carrington
• Supreme Court of the United States
Ex Parte Jackson
• Supreme Court of the United States
Jones v. United States
• Supreme Court of the United States
Katz v. United States
• Supreme Court of the United States
Muskrat v. United States
• Supreme Court of the United States
Olmstead v. United States
• Supreme Court of the United States
Smith v. Maryland
PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS ON PUBLICITY CONDITIONS
• Kevin R. Davis
Kantian “Publicity” and Political Justice [PDF]
• Samuel Freeman
The burdens of public justification: constructivism, contractualism, and publicity
• Thomas Hobbes
On the Office of Sovereign Representative
• Charles Larmore
Public Reason
• Macchiavelli
The Prince
• Plato
The Noble Lie
• John Rawls
Formal Conditions of Right
• John Rawls
Two Concepts of Rules
• Andrew Williams
Incentives, Inequality, and Publicity
CLASSIFICATION AND EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE
• David Carr
Blurred Line Between Espionage and Truth
• Andre Cohen
The Torture Memos: Ten Years Later
• U.S. Department of Justice
Legal Authorities Supporting the Activities of the National Security Agency Described by the President
• Liza Goitein and J. William Leonard
America’s Unnecessary Secrets
• Harvard Law Review
Constitutional Law. Fourth Amendment. Separation of Powers. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review Holds that Prosecutors May Spy on American Agents of Foreign Powers without a Warrant.
• Gia Lee
The Presidents Secret, George Washington Law Review, 2007.
• Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule
Terror in the Balance: Security, Liberty and the Courts; Introduction [PDF]
• Charlie Savage
Ex-C.I.A Officer Charged in Information Leak
• Peter M. Shane
Executive Branch Self-Policing in Times of Crisis: The Challenges for Conscientious Legal Analysis
• Max Weber
Economy and Society, Ch. 11: Bureaucracy”
SECRECY AND MILITARY OPERATIONS
• John Brennan
The Ethics and Efficacy of the President’s Counterterrorism Strategy
• Justin Elliott
Obama Administration’s Drone Death Numbers Don’t Add up
• John Hart Ely
War and Responsibility, Ch 4-5
• Josh Gerstein
Judge losing patience with feds in targeted killing FOIA case
• Jack Goldsmith
Fire When Ready
• Kevin Govern
Warrant-Based Killings
• Karen Greenberg
Doubling down on 9/11
• Scott Horton
Justifying the Killing of an American
• David S. Kris and J. Douglas Wilson
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court – The FISC’s personnel and facilities
• David S. Kris and J. Douglas Wilson
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court – The FISC’s review of applications
• Mark Mazzetti and David E. Sanger
NYTimes: Tap on Merkel Provides Peek at Vast Spy Net
• W. Michael Reisman and James E. Baker
Regulating Covert Action, Ch. 1-2
• Charlie Savage
Secret U.S. Memo Made Legal Case to Kill a Citizen
• Kim Lane Scheppelle
The Sociology of Secrecy, Legal Secrets, Chapter 1
• Scott Shane
U.S. Attacks, Online and From the Air, Fuel Secrecy Debate
• Daniel Swift
Drone Knowns and Drone Unknowns
• Emptywheel
CIA’s Drone Lies and Congressional Oversight
• U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
Use of Section 215 of Patriot Act
SECRECY AND CIVIL RIGHTS
• Nola K. Breglio
Leaving FISA Behind: The Need to Return to Warrantless Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
• Hon. James G. Carr and Patricia L. Bellia
Constitutional challenges to FISA – Fourth Amendment
• David Cole and Martin S. Lederman
The National Security Agency’s Domestic Spying Program: Framing the Debate
• Brian R. Decker
“The War of Information”: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Hamdan V. Rumselfeld, and the President’s Warrantless-Wiretapping Program
• Michael Dorf
Arlen Specter’s Swan Song: Mandating Cameras in the Supreme Court
• Michael Fraggetta
A Comprehensive Analysis of the National Security Agency’s Wiretapping Program and Its Correlation with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
• Amy Goodman
National Security Agency Whistleblower William Binney on Growing State Surveillance
• Leslie Paul Machado and C. Matthew Haynes
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, 1 Data Sec. & Privacy Law
• Senator Jeff Merkley
Senator Merkley on Secret Law and NSA Spying(video no longer available)
• Adam D. Moore
Privacy, Security and Government Surveillance: Wikileaks and the New Accountability
• Alan Rubel
Privacy and the USA Patriot Act: Rights, the Value of Right, and Autonomy
• Anthony M. Shults
The “Surveil or Kill” Dilemma: Separation of Powers and the FISA Amendments Act’s Warrant Requirement for Surveillance of U.S. Citizens Abroad
THE ETHICS OF LEAKS: WHEN TO RELEASE INFORMATION, WHEN TO PROSECUTE
• E.E.B. and K.E.M.
Plugging the Leak: The Case for a Legislative Resolution of the Conflict between the Demands of Secrecy and the Need for an Open Government
• Alan M Katz
Government Information Leaks and the First Amendment
• Tara McKelvey
Leak About Al Qaeda Plot and Double Agent Helps CIA, Could Scare Terrorists
• Heidi Kitrosser
Classified Information Leaks and Free Speech, University of Illinois Law Review, 2008.
• Derigan A. Silver
National Security and the Press: The Government’s Ability to Prosecute Journalists for the Possession or Publication of National Security Information
• Geoffrey R. Stone
Prosecuting the Press for Publishing Classified Information
Contact us
For any questions regarding the conference or registration, please contact: Jennifer Cohen at [email protected]