William C. Banks

William Charles Banks is an American Law Professor and an expert in constitutional law, national security law, and counterterrorism law. He is the current Chair of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law & National Security.^[1]

Biography[]

Banks is 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 has been a Professor of Public Administration in Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.^[2]

In 1994 he was named as special counsel member for the United States Senate Judiciary Committee during which time he nominated Stephen Breyer to be a United States Supreme Court judge.

In 1998, Banks was named the Syracuse University Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence. In 2008, he was named the first SU College of Law Board of Advisors Distinguished Professor of Law.^[3]

In 2003, he founded the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism, a research institute sponsored by Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and Syracuse University College of Law.

Banks is editor-in-chief of the , the world's only peer-reviewed national security law and policy publication. He currently serves as a member of the InfraGard National Members Alliance Board of Advisors; of the Advisory Council for the Perpetual Peace Project; and of the Executive Board of the International Counter-Terrorism Academic Community (ICTAC). He is also a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University.^[4]

Banks' numerous books include Counterinsurgency Law: New Directions in Asymmetric Warfare (Oxford University Press, 2013); Counterterrorism Law (New York: Aspen Publishing, with Stephen Dycus and Peter Raven-Hansen); National Security Law (Aspen Publishing, 2011, with Stephen Dycus & Peter Raven-Hansen); and New Battlefields/Old Laws: Critical Debates from the Hague Convention to Asymmetric Warfare (Columbia University Press, 2011).^[5]

Banks is a member of the American Society of International Law, the American Bar Association, and the New York State Bar Association.^[6]