LAW 414E:
Policy Practicum: Legal and Policy Tools for Preventing Atrocities
In 2012, at the U.S. Holocaust Museum and Memorial, President Obama announced the adoption of a comprehensive global strategy to prevent atrocities. This strategy is based on a set of recommendations generated by a comprehensive interagency review of the U.S. government's capabilities mandated by Presidential Study Directive 10 (PSD-10) of 2011. In unveiling this major new initiative, President Obama underscored that Preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States. Foundational to the PSD-10 recommendations was the creation of a high-level interagency Atrocities Prevention Board (APB) to monitor at-risk countries and emerging threats in order to coordinate the U.S. government's responses thereto. The National Security Staff's Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights convenes the APB. Since being established in 2012, the APB has worked to amass and strengthen a range of legal, diplomatic, military, rhetorical, and financial tools for atrocity prevention. Although the APB is a U.S. initiative, it also aims to build multilateral support around the imperative of prevention, working with the U.N. Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, regional organizations such as the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, and committed partner states, such as Tanzania, Switzerland, and Argentina. The proposed policy lab would support the APB primarily through one of its constitutive entities, the Office of Global Criminal Justice (GCJ) in the U.S. Department of State. GCJ is headed by an Ambassador-at-Large (Assistant Secretary equivalent) and a Deputy (a position I held from 2012-2013) and advises the Secretary of State and the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights on U.S. policy addressed to the prevention of, responses to, and accountability for mass atrocities. Additional client agencies and offices will include the Department of Justice, the National Security Council, the Department of the Treasury, the Agency for International Development (USAID), and other State Department Offices, such as the Bureau of Human Rights, Democracy & Labor and the Bureau of International Organizations. Depending on student interest, I envision the lab taking on a range of projects devoted to (a) strengthening existing tools, (b) developing new capabilities, (c) evaluating the efficacy of past efforts in order to glean lessons learned, and (d) gathering best practices from other states and entities engaged in similar endeavors, all with an eye toward developing concrete recommendations for future action. 1. Regulating the Transfer of Arms in the Service of Atrocities Prevention: In 2013, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), regulating the international trade in conventional arms (which include everything from small arms to battle tanks, combat aircraft, and warships). According to Article 6(3) of the treaty, States Parties (of which there are now 40) are barred from authorizing the transfer of covered conventional weapons if officials have knowledge that the arms would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes. States Parties are obliged to take measures to implement the provisions of the treaty, including through an effective and transparent national control system. In September 2013, the United States signed the treaty but the President has not yet submitted it for ratification. This project would devise proposals for how states can best implement their treaty duties under Article 6(3) with an eye toward generating model regulatory language based on analogous treaty regimes. 2. Designing Commissions of Inquiry in Support of Accountability: The Under-Secretary of Civilian Security, Human Rights, and Democracy would benefit from advice on how to maximize the impact of the commissions of inquiry (COIs) that are established, usually by the Human Rights Council in Geneva but occasionally by the U.N. Security Council, to document the commission of international crimes in armed conflicts and repressive states. The project would collate the various mandates, methodologies, outcomes, and impact of prior (and current) COIs with an eye toward developing best practices and recommending ways that future COIs can be designed to better contribute to processes of accountability for the crimes they document and the perpetrators they identify. In particular, students would propose options for better leveraging lists of perpetrators for accountability purposes, such as by sharing with national immigration and prosecutorial officials. 3. According and Withholding Foreign Official Immunity: The Department of Justice (Human Rights & Special Prosecutions Unit) is keenly interested in gaining a better understanding of the principles of immunity governing foreign officials. Although they would welcome any up-to-date guidance on background legal principles, they are hoping in particular to get more clarity on the actual practice of states in claiming, and according, such immunities, including the historical practice of the United States. The research and recommendations on when the according of immunity should be resisted would inform their prosecutorial practice vis-à-vis state actors accused of the commission of international crimes as well as their negotiations with the Department of State with respect to assertions/suggestions of immunity. 4. Surveying the Efforts of Others: A number of other states, multilateral entities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and United Nations offices are also devoted to preventing atrocities in at-risk or volatile states and to inhibiting the escalation of violence once underway. Although the APB is committed to working multilaterally, it has yet to undertake a comprehensive survey of policies developed by other governments and non-governmental entities in this regard. This project would gather this information in order to identify partnership opportunities and identify policies worthy of emulation. As with all policy labs, students would develop a more fulsome project proposal and work plan with the client entity and prepare mid-term and final reports. The proposed projects, and others that might be developed, will give students the opportunity to develop an expertise in: * elements of U.S. foreign policy, * the challenges of interagency and multilateral coordination, * the process of designing and implementing governmental aid and programming, *techniques of treaty interpretation and implementation, * the packaging legal constraints in policy terms, * developing valid metrics for evaluating successes and failures in circumstances characterized by acute uncertainty and multiple variables, and * comparative law and policy. Over the course of the semester, students should improve specific policy analysis skills (e.g., research design, data collection and analysis, and policy writing) as well as general professional skills (analytical thinking, project management, client relations, teamwork, and oral presentation). Because the APB is a new interagency initiative, with no clear precedent, the policy lab will also offer students a blue ski opportunity to think creatively about ways the U.S. government can balance the equities of its various agencies -- and inspire international partners -- to respond effectively to the pressing global challenge of preventing mass atrocities. Course must be taken for at least two units to meet "R" (Research) requirement. Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper. NOTE: Students may not count more than a combined total of eight units of directed research projects and policy lab practica toward graduation unless the additional counted units are approved in advance by the Petitions Committee. Such approval will be granted only for good cause shown. Even in the case of a successful petition for additional units, a student cannot receive a letter grade for more than eight units of independent research (Policy Lab practicum, Directed Research, Senior Thesis, and/or Research Track). Any units taken in excess of eight will be graded on a mandatory pass basis. For detailed information, see "Directed Research/Policy Labs" in the SLS Student Handbook.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 2-4
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 8 units total)