Four Harvard Law School students were selected this year as Salzburg Cutler Fellows in International Law and Public Service. This annual program brings together students from 14 leading U.S. law schools to foster skills and forge connections through their common interest in international law. More than 500 Fellows have participated in the program since its founding in 2012.
This year’s HLS cohort included Sinh Vuong Nguyen LL.M. ’23, George Papademetriou ’23, Emma Svoboda ’23, and Hannah Sweeney ’24. Mark Wu, Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law and faculty director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard, accompanied the students from HLS and also served as the conference’s co-chair.
“The program taught me that the vitality of international law and the international order rests on the free and frank exchange of ideas between people of diverse backgrounds and values, but united in their commitment to making the world a better place for all,” Nguyen observed.
The 2023 Salzburg Cutler Fellows Program convened on February 16-18 in Washington, D.C. In advance of the opening session, each Fellow prepared a research paper on an emerging issue in public or private international law. Then, during the intensive conference, the students and their faculty representatives reviewed each paper in a workshop setting and offered advice on improving arguments and refining papers for publication. In their papers, the HLS students examined systemic mitigation cases in human rights-based climate change litigation; regulating human rights abuses in the private surveillance software industry; U.S. actions against supply chain forced labor abuses; and the influence of jus ad bellum in international criminal prosecutions.
This year’s conference also included several panels, on topics ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine to the evolution of climate change law and policy, and a Knowledge Café, where the Fellows found opportunities to discuss personal goals and potential career paths with mentors engaged in public service.
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