Hon. James E. Baker

Professor of Law Director, Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law Professor of Public Administration, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs (by courtesy appointment) (315) 443-2284 jebaker@syr.edu Curriculum Vitae [PDF]

Judge James E. Baker is Director of the Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law (SPL) as well as a Professor of Law at the Syracuse College of Law and a Professor of Public Administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy & Technology, and a Judge on the Data Protection Review Court.

Baker previously served as a Judge and Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. As a career civil servant, Baker served as Special Assistant to the President and Legal Adviser to the National Security Council (NSC) as well as Deputy Legal Advisor to the NSC. He has also served as Counsel to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and Intelligence Oversight Board, an attorney in the U.S. Department of State, an aide to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and as a Marine Corps infantry officer. In 2017 -18, Baker was the Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow at the Center for International Studies, MIT.

In addition to teaching at Syracuse University, Baker has taught at Yale Law School, University of Iowa College of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Washington University (St. Louis) School of Law, and Georgetown Law School. He is the author of numerous articles, three books, and one booklet: A Judicial Guide to Artificial Intelligence, with Laurie Hobart and Matthew Mittelsteadt (a Federal Judicial Center Booklet, 2023); The Centaur’s Dilemma: National Security Law for the Coming AI Revolution (Brookings 2021); In the Common Defense: National Security Law for Perilous Times (Cambridge 2007); and, with Michael Reisman, Regulating Covert Action (Yale 1992).

Baker received his B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.