The Yale Law Journal

VOLUME
133
2023-2024
Collection

Exchange: War Powers and Interbranch Checks

Forum

The Insidious War Powers Status Quo

Rebecca Ingber

This Essay highlights two features of modern war powers that hide from public view decisions that take the country to war: the executive branch’s exploitation of interpretive ambiguity to defend unilateral presidential authority, and its dispersal of the power to use force to the outer limbs of the …

Forum

War Powers Reform: A Skeptical View

Matthew C. Waxman

Debates about war powers focus too much on legal checks and on the President’s power to start wars. Congressional checks before and during crises work better than many reformists suppose, and there are ways to improve Congress’s political checking without substantial legal reform.