Bobby Chesney is the Charles I. Francis Professor in Law and a national security law specialist, with a particular interest in problems associated with terrorism. In 2009, Professor Chesney served in the Justice Department in connection with the Detention Policy Task Force, a body tasked by the president with examining the legal and policy issues associated with the detention and trial of persons captured in combat or counterterrorism operations. Professor Chesney’s scholarship addresses a range of issues relating to law and national security, including military detention, targeting, rendition, criminal prosecution, civil litigation, and covert action. His upcoming projects include two books under contract with Oxford University Press, one examining post-9/11 legal controversies from a historical perspective and another concerning the evolving judicial role in national security affairs. Professor Chesney teaches the law school’s core course in National Security Law, as well as a variety of upper-level seminars focused on related topics and the first-year core course in Constitutional Law. Before joining UT’s faculty, he taught at Wake Forest University School of Law, where he won teaching awards from both the student body and the school’s administration.

Professor Chesney is a member of the Advanced Technology Board, an advisory body serving the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He also is a non-resident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, a member of the American Law Institute, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the editorial board for the Journal of National Security Law and Policy, a member of the Advisory Committee of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Law and National Security, and a past chair of the Section on National Security Law of the Association of American Law Schools. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and Texas Christian University, and has testified before Congress on national security law issues on multiple occasions. Professor Chesney blogs at www.lawfareblog.com, which he co-founded in 2010.

Selected Research:

• The Emerging Law of Detention 2.0: The Guantanamo Habeas Cases as Lawmaking (revised edition), Brookings Institution, with Benjamin Wittes and Larkin Reynolds, 2011.
• "Who May Be Killed? Anwar al-Awlaki as a Case Study in the International Legal Regulation of Lethal Force," Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, 2011.
• "Who May Be Held? Military Detention Through the Habeas Lens,"Boston College Law Review & University of Texas Law, 2011. 
• "Iraq and the Military Detention Debate: Firsthand Perspectives from the Other War, 2003-2010," Virginia Journal of International Law, 2010.
• "Terrorism and the Convergence of Criminal and Military Detention Models," Stanford Law Review, 2008.
• "State Secrets and the Limits of National Security Litigation,"  George Washington Law Review, 2007.
• "Beyond Conspiracy? Anticipatory Prosecution and the Challenge of Unaffiliated Terrorism," Southern California Law Review, 2007.
• "Disaggregating Deference: The Judicial Power and Executive Treaty Interpretations," Iowa Law Review, 2007.
• "Federal Prosecution of Terrorism-Related Offenses: Conviction and Sentencing Data in Light of the 'Soft Sentence' and 'Data Reliability' Critiques," Lewis and Clark Law Review, 2007.
• "The Sleeper Scenario: Terrorism-Support Laws and the Demands of Prevention," 2005.

Selected Commentary:

• "The Least Worst Venue," Foreign Policy, January 2011. 
• "Prosecuting Terrorists in Federal Court: What This Means for Other Trials," The New York Times, November 2010.
• "Obama's Handcuffs," Foreign Policy, November 2010.
• "What Counts as Abetting Terrorists?" The New York Times, June 2010.
• "Mexican Pirates Shoot US Jet Skier Near Border on Falcon Lake, Texas," The Christian Science Monitor, 2010.
• Lawfare > Hard National Security Choices
• Robert Chesney's National Security Law Listserv Archive, Journal of National Security Law & Policy