Dundukov M.Y. Legal standards of protection of information on matters of national security of the United States

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the analysis of judicial standards, which regulate the policy of classified information pertaining to matters of national security of the United States. The article reveals the policy of assigning different levels of secrecy, as well as the process and conditions under which the term of secrecy can be extended for a documents requiring various levels of clearance. The article also goes over the process established by US legislation of declassifying documents and disclosure of historical materials to the general population, which could not previously be accessed; it demonstrates the role of special commissions created in the United States in order to monitor the protection of secret documents and disclosure of information that has already been declassified. Article is based on the method of historical analysis and the method of analyzing documents. The documents being analyzed in this process are those of US Federal Laws and US Presidential Orders. The scientific novelty of this article is in the fact that the author is first to sum up the experience of the United States over the last decades, pertaining to the area of legislative regulations on protection of information on matters of national security. He also explains the role of Federal Laws and delegated legislation issued by the President of the United States in regulating the process of classifying document of the Federal US Government. The author reveals the role of the Freedom of Information Act ensuring the proper legal protection of information concerning the matters of national security.

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