Professor Margaret Hu Named Chair of the ABA’s Advisory Committee on National Security Law
Professor Hu will play a leading role convening scholars and educating policymakers, lawyers, media, and the general public on critical national security issues, including legal governance around emerging technologies and AI.
Margaret Hu, the Davison M. Douglas Professor of Law and Director of the Digital Democracy Lab at William & Mary Law School, was recently appointed Chair of the American Bar Association (ABA)’s Advisory Committee on Law and National Security.
The Advisory Committee plays a key role in working with the ABA’s larger Standing Committee on Law and National Security (SCOLANS). SCOLANS is the oldest Standing Committee in the ABA and, for over sixty years, has focused on educational initiatives on the rule of law, democracy, and national security. SCOLANS conducts studies, sponsors programs and administers working groups on law and national security-related issues to serve ABA members and the legal profession.
Professor Hu’s immediate predecessor in the role was Lala Qadir, the Senior Director for Technology Security and AI Policy at Microsoft. Ms. Qadir was a speaker at the AI + Democracy Weekend held in Williamsburg in January.
In a concurrent appointment, the ABA named Glenn Gerstell, former General Counsel of the National Security Agency, as the new Chair of SCOLANS. Mr. Gerstell replaces the outgoing Chair, Stephen Preston, former General Counsel of the Pentagon and the CIA.
For Professor Hu, the first order of business as the new Chair of the Advisory Committee will be to help preside over the 36th Annual Review of National Security Law CLE Conference in Washington, DC. The theme of this year’s conference is “AI and Disruptive Technologies: Transforming National Security and the Law,” a topic which Professor Hu recently testified about before Congress. The conference features an all-star lineup, including Thomas Friedman, Avril Haines, and Michael Chertoff, and Professor Hu will kick off the second day with a call to order.
William & Mary Law School is a sponsor of the conference, and several law students will travel to DC to attend, along with Professor Hu.
As Professor Hu steps into her role as Chair of the Advisory Committee, she will bring her expertise to ABA programming, linking AI, democratic participation, and technology literacy that she works on with the Digital Democracy Lab. For Professor Hu, the ability to properly use AI is not just helpful for personal use, but rather as a matter of national security; as more decisions are made autonomously by algorithms, being able to understand the outputs is critical. As Professor Hu’s role in SCOLANS further elevates this work nationally, she will continue to lead the conversations on AI, democracy, and national security at William & Mary.
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The Digital Democracy Lab at W&M Law School conducts and disseminates interdisciplinary research on a web of national priorities focusing on the intersection of democracy and emerging technologies. As democratic institutions struggle to adapt to the digital world, particularly AI and other emerging technologies, the Digital Democracy Lab focuses on providing legal scholarship to inform digital technology policy and regulation.
The Digital Democracy Lab places William & Mary at the forefront of a national conversation on these important technological and legal advances, and their profound consequences on democratic institutions and the rule of law. Learn more about the Digital Democracy Lab here.