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Highlights from the 11th Salzburg Cutler Fellows Program

Students from 14 US law schools convened in Washington, DC, last month to discuss how international law can help shape a more just global society.

Between February 16 and 18, 56 students convened for the 11th annual Salzburg Cutler Fellows Program: The Future of Public and Private International Law.

Students engaged with prominent legal professionals, public servants, and leaders in the international legal community. Discussions focused on legal challenges facing today's world and public service career paths.

The Salzburg Cutler Fellows Program is held under the auspices of the Lloyd N. Cutler Center for the Rule of Law.

The program is held in collaboration with fourteen of the leading US law schools: University of California Berkeley, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Cornell University, Duke University, Georgetown University, Harvard University, University of Michigan, New York University, Northwestern University, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, the University of Virginia and Yale University.

This year's program included three panels on timely international law topics. On the first morning of the program, Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association (IBA); Robin Dunnigan, United States deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs; and Ambassador William Taylor, vice president of Russia and Europe at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), examined the war in Ukraine and accountability in the international system.

The conversation ranged from the US administration's assistance to Ukraine to the power and limitations of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

That evening, Leslie Fields, national director of policy, advocacy and legal at the Sierra Club, and Ambassador Daniel Feldman, partner at Covington & Burling and former chief of staff and counselor to Secretary John Kerry, reflected on how climate law and policy have evolved in the past few decades and how climate action must advance in the coming years.

The next day started with a panel on human rights with speakers Ambassador Stavros Lambrinidis, EU ambassador to the US and former EU special representative for human rights, and Ambassador Roya Rahmani, senior advisor at the Atlantic Council and former ambassador of Afghanistan to the US and Indonesia.

The conversation underscored the importance of developing institutions that support human rights efforts in the long term and adapting human rights approaches to the communities they serve.

In advance of the program, Fellows prepared working papers on emerging questions in international law. Faculty advisors from each of the participating law schools facilitated workshops designed to help students receive feedback from peers and refine their papers for eventual publication.

This year's student papers covered diverse topics, ranging from star torts to cyber surveillance, war debt, Russia's war in Ukraine, gender-based violence, and climate law, among many others.

On the program's final day, students shared their personal ambitions with mentors in the international law field during "Knowledge Café" sessions.

This year's mentors included Katrin Kuhlmann, visiting professor of law and faculty co-director of the Center on Inclusive Trade and Development at Georgetown Law; Barbara Medrado, associate on the international trade team at King & Spalding and a 2019 Cutler Fellow; Gomiluk Otokwala, senior counsel at the International Monetary Fund; and Thomas Weatherall, attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser for Human Rights and Refugees at the US Department of State and 2013 Cutler Fellow.

Between listening to and connecting with expert legal practitioners, students had the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with peers from around the country. "It's often so isolating to engage with the international law community at one's own school, and feeling the energy of so many intellectually curious peers was energizing in my own work," said one participant.

"As a result of the program, I am even more excited about my career in international law," added another. "I now have a new cohort of colleagues in the field who I know will be instrumental to the future of international law."

"The Salzburg-Cutler [Fellows] Program was a tremendous opportunity that I never quite expected to have the good fortune of participating in," said Vuong Nguyen, a Harvard Law student who felt particularly inspired by the program.

He added: "In our increasingly fragmented international order, it is important that international law ensures the participation of a wide community of interests and perspectives, developing and developed alike. The Salzburg Cutler [Fellows] Program's commitment to pluralism is, to me, strong evidence of international law's vitality, even during these tumultuous times."