Week One

On Monday, I began my internship at the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) working with their International Programs team in Arlington, Virginia. NCSC works with judicial systems across the United States to bolster justice, increase resource access, and strengthen courts. Their International Programs Division (IPD) focuses on promoting similar values abroad through various rule of law initiatives. Through the State Department, the team contracts with a wide array of foreign governments on projects such as creating efficient court databases, strengthening security efforts for judicial and administrative actors, and promoting ethics and anti-corruption. 

Immediately when I started my internship here, I noticed how the organization has been hit by the current administration's cancellation of most foreign aid and development funding through the State Department. There are empty offices around the division, and other staffers mentioned that there were a lot of layoffs. Multiple projects have also been canceled by the government, and the team has had to quickly switch to closing down field offices, wrapping up work, and writing final reports. My first meeting I attended was for this reason - NCSC's project with Moldova, which focused on creating a national legal writing and research curriculum for Moldovan law students, was shut down. Later in the week I worked on other tasks for closing down projects in Tunisia and North Macedonia that focused on anti-corruption efforts in the judiciary and a national legal writing and research curriculum, respectively.  I would be misrepresenting the work I will be doing this summer if I didn't mention how the current political environment is affecting the rule of law space and how the environment of the office has been affected.

However, there are still exciting projects that I can't wait to work on. Most projects geared towards criminal prosecution/law enforcement are still ongoing. For example, I will be doing research on terrorism attacks and attempts in the Philippines for a developing project focused on bolstering terrorism courts in a specific region of the Philippines. I also have done work on Morocco's recently passed law aimed at creating alternatives to incarceration in the Moroccan judicial system such as community service, rehabilitation, and daily fines. Given my past work in national security, I was excited to discover how many connections I noticed between the projects and my interests. 

I can't wait to dive further into the IPD's various rule of law initiatives and learn more about the projects and countries I will be working with. I'm already extremely impressed with how the staff has dealt with the shifting political environment, and will make sure to keep you updated as things progress!