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7 J. Nat'l Sec. L. & Pol'y 1 (2014)

handle is hein.journals/jnatselp7 and id is 1 raw text is: Developing Client-Ready Practitioners:
Learning How to Practice National Security Law at
Military Law Schools
Lisa L. Turner*
I. INTRODUCTION
To lead an untrained people to war is to throw them away.-Confucius
[W]ar is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by
a different means.1 Likewise, the body politic shapes law.2 Reflecting the
political realities over the past half a century, national security law and associ-
ated legal policy has expanded substantially in complexity, specificity, and
volume. National security law is no longer limited to traditional state-versus-
state armed conflict, and now includes a range of issues from terrorist and
cyberattacks to pandemic influenza. The practice of uniformed lawyers, known
as judge advocates (JAGs),4 has been increasingly integral to and effected by
* Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) for Air Mobility Command, U.S. Air Force. Col. Turner previously
served as SJA for Air Education and Training Command, U.S. Northern Command and North American
Aerospace Defense Command, and as an instructor at the Air Force Judge Advocate General's School.
The author thanks Chief Judge James Baker, USCAAF; Major General Steven Lepper, USAF; Major
General William Moorman, USAF (ret.); Colonel David Graham, USA (ret.); Captain Kevin Lundy,
USCG; Colonel John Martinez, USAF (ret.); Colonel Adam Oler, USAF; and Colonel Charles
Plummer, USAF, for their assistance and thoughtful comments on earlier drafts of this article. The
author also thanks Stephanie V. Turner for her edits on this and other publications. The views expressed
in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the
U.S. government, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Air Force, or the Air Force Judge Advocate
General's Corps. © 2014, Lisa L. Turner.
1. CARL VON CLAUSEWITZ, ON WAR 8 (Michael Howard & Peter Paret eds. & trans., 1984) (1832).
2. The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience. The felt necessities of the time, the
prevalent moral and political theories, intuitions of public policy, avowed or unconscious, even the
prejudices which judges share with their fellow-men, have had a good deal more to do than the
syllogism in determining the rules by which men should be governed OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, THE
COMMON LAW 5 (Mark D. Howe ed., 1963) (1881).
3. There is not a single legal academy, practitioner, or public definition of national security law.
This article uses national security law to describe jurisprudence associated with national security as
defined in 10 U.S.C. §801(16): the national defense and foreign relations of the United States. For
this article, it also includes those areas for which the military is charged to provide support to civil
authorities when tasked, such as Homeland security threats from natural or manmade disasters. This
article applies this definition from strategic to tactical levels of practice. For a discussion on the
definitions of national security, see Laura K. Donohue, The Limits of National Security, 48 AM. CRIM. L.
REV. 1573 (2012); see also JAMES E. BAKER, IN THE COMMON DEFENSE: NATIONAL SECURITY LAW FOR
PERILOUS TIMES 13-22 (2007); Peter Raven-Hansen, et. al, Remarks at What is National Security
Law? panel, Am. Bar Ass'n Standing Comm. on L. and Nat'l Security (hereinafter SCOLANS);
Georgetown Law Second Annual Seminar on Teaching National Security Law (Sep. 17, 2011); Ben
Powell, Remarks at Careers in National Security Panel (Oct. 7, 2011).
4. A judge advocate general (JAG) is defined in 10 U.S.C. §801 (13) as (A) an officer of the Judge
Advocate General's Corps of the Army or the Navy; (B) an officer of the Air Force or the Marine Corps

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