OU Law Students Attend State Department's Advisory Committee on International Law Meeting

Three students from Professor Evelyn Aswad's Human Rights Law class (Marcelo Pendleton, Ben Lundquist, and Jason Hubbert) accompanied her to a meeting of the State Department's Advisory Committee on International Law (ACIL) as well as a meeting of a Department working group on religion and conflict mitigation.  At ACIL, they heard former Legal Advisers for various US Presidents and international law professors from throughout the country engage in interesting legal discussions about the U.S. use of force in Iraq and Syria with respect to ISIL as well as updates on the situation in the Ukraine.  At the meeting, they met Harold Hongju Koh (former Legal Adviser for President Obama) and Abe Sofaer (former Legal Adviser for Presidents Reagan and H.W. Bush).  At the religion and conflict mitigation meeting, the students heard presentations by various academics, faith leaders, and members of NGOs about recommendations for the State Department to consider in combatting religious violence.  Each of the OU Law students had conducted pro bono research for Professor Aswad, who is a member of the working group, on various aspects of religious violence prior to attending the meeting.  They also had lunch at the State Department with various government officials who are religious freedom experts.  After the meetings, Marcelo Pendleton remarked "The meetings were an electrifying experience that put the competencies that we learned throughout the semester in a whole new perspective."