Legality, Next Steps for Canadian Tariffs

Feb 14, 2025

1 min

Julian Ku

Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University Professor Julian Ku was quoted in The Globe and Mail article “The best hope for Canada in fighting a trade war with Trump may lie in U.S. courts."



“Using IEEPA to impose tariffs has not been done before, so there has never been a court ruling on this question,” said Julian Ku, who studies the interaction of international law and U.S. constitutional law at Hofstra University.

Mr. Trump has, however, argued that he is responding to external threats, citing the movement of fentanyl and illegal migrants to the U.S. from Canada, Mexico and China. That is likely to prove a potent defense, Prof. Ku said.

“The court has also been deferential to the President on national-security matters, and the language of the statute is very broad, so it is far from clear which way the court would come down on this issue,” he said.
Connect with:
Julian Ku

Julian Ku

Professor of Law and Interim Dean

The Maurice A. Deane Distinguished Professor in Constitutional Law and Professor of Law.

International LawInternational Law in U.S. CourtsConstitutional LawCorporate LawTrans Pacific Partnership
Powered by

You might also like...

Check out some other posts from Hofstra University

1 min

Affordability is Key Issue for NYS Lawmakers

Lawrence Levy, associate vice president and executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies, talked to Newsday about New York State lawmakers returning to session with a mandate to address affordability, specifically childcare and rising utility and health care costs.

1 min

Is Maduro Ouster In Line with Trump’s “America First” Mantra?

In an article about the U.S.-led ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, Dr. Meena Bose told Newsday that President Donald Trump’s foreign policy positions have undergone an “evolution” between his first and second terms. “When he first ran for president and started campaigning in 2015, he was very much opposed to U.S. intervention abroad,” said Dr. Bose. “His America First policy was very much against the Iraq War. He called for … economic U.S. primacy in the world, but to also kind of step back from direct engagement. And yet, we’ve seen multiple efforts from the first term and the second where the administration has been engaged in airstrikes and military action abroad.”

1 min

Analyzing the Media’s Decision to Air Partisan Address

The Associated Press interviewed Mark Lukasiewicz, dean of The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication, for the article: “Trump gave an unusually partisan White House address. Should networks have given him the TV time?" Dean Lukasiewicz said, “It’s not that the Oval Office and the White House haven’t been used for political speeches before… But, as with a great deal of what Donald Trump does as president, this was outside the norm.”

View all posts