Biography
Professor Stephen Dycus is an internationally recognized authority on national security law and environmental law. The courses he has taught at Vermont Law School include Public International Law, National Security Law, Estates, Property, and Water Law. He was founding chair of the National Security Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools. He is the lead author of "National Security Law" (the field's leading casebook) and "Counterterrorism Law", and he was founding co-editor in chief of the Journal of National Security Law & Policy.
Professor Dycus earned his BA degree in 1963 and his LLB degree in 1965 from Southern Methodist University. He served as a bank trust officer in Texas and then as assistant dean at Southern Methodist University Law School. He earned his LLM degree in 1976 from Harvard University. He has been a faculty member at Vermont Law School since 1976. He was a visiting scholar at the University of California at Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law in 1983-84 and at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C., in 1991. He was a visiting professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1991 to 1992 and at Petrozavodsk State University in Karelia, Russia, in 1997. He served on the Vermont Water Resources Board for four years, was a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy on clean up of nuclear weapons complexes, and was a member of a National Academies committee on cyber warfare. He is a member of the American Law Institute.
Publications
Chapters
“The Domestic Role of the United States Military,” in An Anthology: 60 Years of Transformation – National Security Law (Julie Huygens, ed.) ABA Standing Committee on Law & National Security (2022).
Books
2022-2023 Supplement for National Security Law (7th ed.) and Counterterrorism Law (4th ed.) (with William C. Banks, Emily Berman, Peter Raven-Hansen & Stephen I. Vladeck), Aspen Publishers (2022).
2021-2022 SUPPLEMENT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY LAW (7TH ED.) AND COUNTERTERRORISM LAW (4TH ED.) (with William C. Banks, Emily Berman, Peter Raven-Hansen & Stephen I. Vladeck) (Aspen Publishers 2021).
COVID-19: THE LEGAL CHALLENGES (Stephen Dycus & Eugene R. Fidell, eds.) (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press 2021).
NATIONAL SECURITY LAW, 7th ed. (with William C. Banks, Peter Raven- Hansen & Stephen I. Vladeck), (New York: Aspen Publishers 2020).
2019-2020 SUPPLEMENT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY LAW (6TH ED.) AND COUNTERTERRORISM LAW (3RD ED.) (with William C. Banks, Peter Raven-Hansen & Stephen I. Vladeck) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2019)
COUNTERTERRORISM LAW, 4th ed. (with William C. Banks, Peter Raven-Hansen & Stephen I. Vladeck) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2020).
2018-2019 SUPPLEMENT TO NATIONAL SECURITY LAW (6TH ED.) AND COUNTERTERRORISM LAW (3RD ED.) (with William C. Banks, Peter Raven-Hansen & Stephen I. Vladeck) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2018).
2017-2018 SUPPLEMENT TO NATIONAL SECURITY LAW (6TH ED.) AND COUNTERTERRORISM LAW (3RD ED.) (with William C. Banks, Peter Raven-Hansen & Stephen I. Vladeck) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2017).
SOLDIERS ON THE HOME FRONT: THE DOMESTIC ROLE OF THE AMERICAN MILITARY (with William C. Banks) (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 2016) .
COUNTERTERRORISM LAW, 3rd ed. (with William C. Banks, Peter Raven-Hansen & Stephen I. Vladeck) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2016).
TEACHER’S MANUAL FOR NATIONAL SECURITY LAW, 6TH ED. (with William C. Banks, Peter Raven-Hansen & Stephen I. Vladeck) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2016).
TEACHER’S MANUAL FOR COUNTERTERRORISM LAW, 3RD ED. (with William C. Banks, Peter Raven-Hansen & Stephen I. Vladeck) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2016).
2015-2016 SUPPLEMENT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY LAW (5TH ED.) AND COUNTERTERRORISM LAW (2ND ED.) (with William C. Banks, Peter Raven-Hansen & Stephen I. Vladeck) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2015).
NATIONAL SECURITY LAW, 6th ed. (with Arthur L. Berney, William C. Banks, Peter Raven- Hansen & Stephen I. Vladeck) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2016).
2013-2014 SUPPLEMENT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY LAW (5TH ED. ) AND COUNTERTERRORISM LAW (2ND ED.) (with William C. Banks, Peter Raven-Hansen, & Stephen I. Vladeck) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2013).
2012-2013 SUPPLEMENT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY LAW (5TH ED.) AND COUNTERTERRORISM LAW (2ND ED.) (with William C. Banks, Peter Raven-Hansen, & Stephen I. Vladeck) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2012).
COUNTERTERRORISM LAW, 2nd ed. (with William C. Banks and Peter Raven-Hansen)(New York: Aspen Publishers 2012).
TEACHER'S MANUAL FOR NATIONAL SECURITY LAW (5TH ED.), with William C. Banks & Peter Raven-Hansen (New York: Aspen Publishers 2012).
TEACHER’S MANUAL FOR COUNTERTERRORISM LAW, 2ND ED. (with William C. Banks & Peter Raven-Hansen) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2012).
NATIONAL SECURITY LAW, 5th ed. (with Arthur L. Berney, William C. Banks & Peter Raven-Hansen) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2011).
2008-2009 SUPPLEMENT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY LAW, 4TH ED. (with William C. Banks & Peter Raven-Hansen) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2008).
COUNTERTERRORISM LAW (with William C. Banks & Peter Raven-Hansen) (New York: Aspen Publishers 2007).
Articles
Brooks on Stage(s): a One-Man Show about Life and Law, 20 VT. J. ENVT’L L. 138 (2019).
Book Review, Requiem for Korematsu? (reviewing Eric K. Yamamoto, IN THE SHADOW OF KOREMATSU: DEMOCRATIC LIBERTIES AND NATIONAL SECURITY (2018)), 10 J. NAT’L SECURITY L. & POL’Y (forthcoming 2019).
Book Review, 79 GEO. L. J. 193 (1990) (reviewing Philip G. Schrag, LISTENING FOR THE BOMB (1989)).
Book Review, 21 NAT. RES. J. 437 (1981) (reviewing Robert V. Bartlett, THE RESERVE MINING CONTROVERSY (1980)).
Commentaries
Presentations
"Nuclear War: Still the Gravest Threat to the Environment," Hot Topics in Environmental Law Lecture Series, Vermont Law School (June 2021).
Opening and closing remarks, "The Continuing Threat of Nuclear War," Journal of National Security Law & Policy Symposium, Georgetown Law School, February 25, 2019.
"Whistling in the Dark: Addressing Threats to Critical Infrastructure," to a conference on national security issues sponsored by the New York County Lawyers Association on April 20, 2018.
Panelist, “Whistleblowers, Leakers, and National Security”, Annual Vermont Law Review Symposium, Vermont Law School, September 15, 2017.
Panelist, Strengthening National Security by Protecting Public Health, Georgetown University Law School, March 1, 2016.
"Military Responses to the Effects of Climate Change," Vermont Journal of Environmental Law Symposium, "Rising Temps and Emerging Threats: The Intersection of Climate Change and National Security in the 21st Century," Vermont Law School, October 25, 2013.
"The Scholar's Role in a Dangerous World: A New Look at Military Detention of Civilians,"
The Richard O. Brooks Faculty Scholarship Prize Lecture, Vermont Law School, April 22, 2010.
"Defense Planning for a Warmer Planet,"
Conference on National Security Challenges and the Obama Administration, Duke University Law School, April 16, 2010.
Awards & Accomplishments
Awards, Honors or Grants
Vermont Law School Richard Brooks Faculty Scholarship Prize, 2008 - 2010
Affiliations
Chair, Environmental Law Section, Association of American Law Schools, 1984-85.
Co-editor in Chief, Journal of National Security Law & Policy, 2004-2008.
Member, American Law Institute, 2000-present.
Service Work
U.S. Department of Energy – consultant 1998-2001.
National Academies/National Research Council – Committee on Deterring Cyberattacks: Informing Strategies and Developing Options for U.S. Policy – member 2009-2010.
Member, National Research Council Committee on Deterring Cyberattacks: Informing Strategies and Developing Options for U.S. Policy, 2009-2010.
Water Resources Board, State of Vermont – member 1993-1997.