At the end of July, 16 law, graduate, and undergraduate students completed their summer internship with the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law.

The nine-week program aimed to provide interns from a variety of different disciplines who are interested in the national security field an opportunity to conduct research culminating in final written projects about timely, critical issues at the forefront of democratic governance and ethics and legality in warfare. Additionally, interns had the opportunity to learn from and meet with CERL’s board members and affiliated faculty. These collaborations shaped the interns’ research leading up to CERL’s annual summer soirée during which interns presented their research to CERL’s affiliates.

The summer interns’ projects included:

• Producing a white paper on how to address legal accountability with the use of autonomous weapons systems in warfare
• Writing an amicus brief on the viability of the Alien Torts Statute and other related issues to the extrajudicial killings of foreign nationals in Burnley v. United States
• Surveying all U.S. military engagements considered hostilities to determine the ineffectiveness of the War Powers Resolution
• Creating an election tabletop scenario matrix addressing the various factors that could contribute towards creating a risk environment in which the midterm elections are disrupted.

Here is what a couple of interns shared about the program:

“CERL provided me with the opportunity to explore important and often under-addressed topics in the national security law space. Throughout the course of the internship, I was able to strengthen my legal research and writing skills with the support of my fellow interns and the CERL staff.” – Quinton O’Connor, The George Washington University Law School, Juris Doctor Program

“Through CERL, I had the privilege of conducting legal research alongside students from various disciplines, guided by leading academics, military professionals, and legal practitioners who place ethics and the rule of law at the center of national security. The program’s expert lectures deepened my understanding of the forces reshaping warfare and democratic institutions, the public service careers dedicated to defending their integrity, and my professional direction within that landscape.” – Sarah Well, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, Juris Doctor Program