William C.
Banks
Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor
Director, Institute for National Security and
Counterterrorism
Professor William C.
Banks is recognized internationally as an expert in
constitutional law, national security law, and
counterterrorism. Since
1987, when the Federation of American Scientists
asked him to provide a legal perspective on first
use of nuclear weapons, Banks has helped set the
parameters for the relatively new field of national
security law.
Banks co-wrote the definitive text in the
field. National Security Law was first
published in 1990 and is now in its fourth edition.
Banks and his co-authors published
Counterterrorism Law in 2007 to help define the
emerging field of counterterrorism law. Banks is also the author of numerous other books,
book chapters and articles including
Constitutional Law: Structure and Rights in
Our Federal System, 5th Ed., "The Death of FISA,"
"Legal Sanctuaries and Predator Strikes in the War
on Terror," and "Targeted Killing and Assassination:
The U.S. Legal Framework."
In addition to teaching United States law subjects,
Professor Banks lectures extensively on these and
other national security and constitutional
law-related topics and on comparative legal systems
throughout the United States and Canada, as well as
in South and Central America, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Asia,
Africa, and Europe. Banks' current research
interests include domestic and international
terrorism, emergency powers, war powers,
emergency preparedness and response, civil/military
relations, and appropriations powers.
A graduate of the University of Nebraska (B.A. 1971)
and the University of Denver (J.D. 1974, M.S., Law &
Society 1982),
Banks joined the faculty of the Syracuse University
College of Law in 1978. Since 1998, he also has been
a Professor of Public Administration in SU's Maxwell
School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He was
named the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor
for Teaching Excellence in 1998, a College of Law
Board of Advisors Professor in 2005, and he became
the founding director of the Institute for National
Security and Counterterrorism at Syracuse University
in 2003. He also served as Special Counsel to the United
States Senate Judiciary Committee in 1994. Banks
worked with the committee on the confirmation
hearings for Supreme Court nominee Stephen G. Breyer.
Professor William C. Banks Reflects on
Counterterrorism and the Law, Syndicus (2003)
Professor Banks' Faculty Webpage
