Week 5
It’s hard to believe I’m already half-way through my summer internship at the NCSC; it feels like just yesterday that I arrived in Northern Virginia from Williamsburg. Prior to beginning my internship, one part of the internship program that stood out to me was the weekly Learning Session.
I have come to greatly appreciate this aspect of the internship. Each week, our boss, Tim Hughes hosts a discussion session based on a weekly rule of law topic. Generally, these learning sessions focus on what “rule of law” means, both in principle and in practice. My first week, the learning session was focused on the NCSC’s mission and a rule of law framework of concentric justice. In Week 5, we had two learning sessions because there would be none during the week of July 1 due to the holiday and one of the interns being out of the country. The first one focused on a definitional approach to the Rule of Law, while the second was about viewing the rule of law framework from a donor’s perspective (in this case, USAID). When working to expand the rule of law abroad, it is important to know what that terminology means to different people and entities. Generally speaking, “rule of law” isn’t just a set of broad principles; it is inclusive of the structures and procedures that play a role in carrying out the principles.
During my fifth week, I worked on projects including: creating a risk analysis for North Macedonia; crafting a Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing program concept paper for Bosnia and Herzegovina; preparing a work plan for NCSC’s program in Moldova; and updating employment contracts for NCSC’s employees in Moldova, both in English and Romanian. While I didn’t have the chance to really dig into it last week, Tim Hughes assigned to me the really interesting task of briefing and making a presentation on a 2021 European Union Case regarding whether Poland’s new Supreme Court law violates European Union Standards. I will be sure to summarize my findings in a future blog entry!
While I am sad that my internship is half-way done, at least I still have half the summer (and learning sessions) left before returning to Williamsburg!