Jack M. Beard

Professor Jack Beard joined the law faculty in 2011. Before coming to Nebraska, he was a member of the faculty at the UCLA School of Law. He previously served for fourteen years as the Associate Deputy General Counsel (International Affairs) in the Department of Defense where he was responsible for a variety of legal matters related to arms control agreements, defense cooperation and basing agreements in the Middle East region, and programs assisting states of the former Soviet Union in dismantlement of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and other nonproliferation activities.  These latter activities included the removal of nuclear weapons from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine and the elimination of other WMDs and related infrastructure in those countries.  He served as the senior lawyer on numerous U.S. delegations negotiating international agreements on a wide range of U.S. military operations and activities. He also served on active and reserve duty as an officer in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where his assignments included Chief of the International Law Section, International and Operational Law Division, Office of The Judge Advocate General of the Army. He is a Lieutenant Colonel in U.S. Army JAG Corps (Retired).

Professor Beard is a Director of the Space, Cyber, and National Security Law Program, teaching courses in International Cyber Security and National Security Space Law. He also teaches courses in National Security Law, Arms Control, and Human Rights & International Criminal Law. His primary research interests focus on public international law and national security law, with a particular emphasis upon space law and military uses of space, cyber capabilities, arms control, the law of armed conflict, and the international legal implications of modern military technologies. He was recognized as a Cyber Security & Data Privacy Trailblazer by the National Law Journal.

Professor Beard is the Editor-in-Chief of the Woomera Manual on the International Law of Military Space Activities and Operations (Oxford University Publishing, 2024).

Professor Beard is the Chairman of the Committee on the Use of Force of the American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA), a member of the ABILA Board of Directors, and is one of the U.S. representatives on the London-based International Law Association’s Committee on the Use of Force. He is also a member of the International Institute of Space Law.

Watch to see how Professor Beard is guiding the laws of military space operations. 

• Arms Control: Problem of Law and Technology Law 760 (2 cr hr)
  This course will examine the historical, political and strategic foundations of contemporary arms control and disarmament regimes and will evaluate the nature and effectiveness of supporting legal frameworks. Specific topics will include: prohibited weapons under international law; agreements banning various conventional weapons; the successes and failures of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention; nuclear arms limitation agreements and underlying nuclear deterrence doctrines; the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement, and; future arms control initiatives related to cyber warfare, space and emerging new military technologies.
• International Cyber Security: Mischief, Crime and Warfare Law 756/G (3 cr hr)
  This course explores international legal issues related to emerging conflicts in cyberspace and related security and technology problems. Its primary focus is on the appropriate legal frameworks, particularly the Law of Armed Conflict, which may be applicable to hostile acts in cyberspace and compares various forms of cybercrime with state-sponsored efforts to disrupt, deny, degrade or destroy information in computer networks and systems. Related topics include an examination of the use of information as a weapon; cyber techniques and technologies; private and governmental roles in cyberspace, and; increasingly diverse military operations in cyberspace (including various forms of data exploitation, espionage and sabotage). This course is also available to online LLM students.
• National Security Law Law 719 (1 cr hr)
  This course examines international and U.S. law relevant to the handling of national security matters. On the domestic level, we will study the allocation of power under the Constitution between Congress and the President with respect to war powers and will assess the role of the courts as a check on the political branches in this area, particularly as it relates to ongoing efforts to fight terrorism. Domestic statutory authorities, especially the War Powers Resolution, will also be covered. To illustrate and better understand some of the challenges confronting individual liberties in time of war, several contemporary U.S. national security problems will be examined, particularly the military detention of suspected terrorists and their trial by military commissions. Other controversial U.S. national security initiatives, such as covert intelligence operations and the targeted killing of suspected terrorists (particularly by unmanned aerial vehicles), will be assessed in the context of both domestic and international law. The second half of the course focuses on international law governing the use of force, conflict management and collective security arrangements. Special attention will be given to the U.N. Charter, the doctrine of self-defense, arguments setting forth justifications for the unilateral use of force, intervention in internal conflicts, and the institutional framework for collective efforts to maintain international peace and security, including peacekeeping operations and peace enforcement actions.
• National Security Space Law Law 747 (1 cr hr)
  This course will address the national security and military aspects of space law and policy, including arms control, intelligence gathering, weaponization, and rules on the use of force as applied to space activities. This course is also available to online LL.M. students.
• Human Rights and International Criminal Law Law 715 (3 cr hr)
  This course examines the nature and scope of transnational and international criminal law and explores the relationship between human rights law and state sovereignty. Specific topics include: an introduction to human rights law; state sovereignty and extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction; immunity from jurisdiction; nationality; extradition; international criminal law, including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes; the International Criminal Court; the ad hoc international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and; international or hybrid criminal tribunals and special courts for other countries, including Sierra Leone, Lebanon and Kosovo.