Indiana Law Seminar Featured at Rule of Law Workshop
On Feb. 1, the Indiana Law seminar on "Counterinsurgency and Rule of Law Operations" was featured at a workshop on "Military Support to Rule of Law and Security Sector Reform," organized by Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) and the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL). The seminar was taught during the fall 2007 semester by David P. Fidler, James Louis Calamaras Professor of Law and director of the Indiana University Center on American and Global Security. At the JFCOM-CALL workshop, Fidler described the innovative seminar and some of the lessons he and his students learned about trying to plan for rule of law operations in the midst of counterinsurgency campaigns.
In this seminar, Fidler created a hypothetical scenario involving the African nation of Zimbabwe that raised the issue of potential U.S. military and civilian intervention — code-named Operation Shumba. He tasked his 18 students to work in teams to produce a preliminary legal analysis to inform planning for hypothetical U.S. counterinsurgency operations in Zimbabwe. His seminar students worked with him to produce an initial legal planning document for rule of law operations during a counterinsurgency campaign. The students made extensive use of the new U.S. Army and Marines Counterinsurgency Field Manual and the new Rule of Law Handbook: A Practical Guide for Judge Advocates developed by the Center for Law and Military Operations and the Joint Force Judge Advocate. The Final Report for Operation Shumba can be accessed here.
"As evidenced by the interest shown in this seminar by people in the U.S. government working on rule of law issues in security, stability, and reconstruction operations," Fidler observed, "my students had to address some of the most pressing issues facing civilian and military personnel now and in the foreseeable future. The challenges facing implementation of the rule of law in conflict and post-conflict societies will be one of the great tasks the United States has to shoulder in its national security and foreign policy strategies. This seminar gave my students a small taste of the difficulties that rule of law operations confront in the context of fighting a counterinsurgency."
Law student and U.S. Army Captain Aaron Lykling was a student in the seminar. "For better or worse, the United States is likely to be involved in counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan for the foreseeable future," Lykling said. "This seminar equipped me with practical skills that I could not have received at any other law school. As a future Army judge advocate, it was an invaluable experience."
Fidler will offer the seminar again in the fall 2008 semester. Because of courses like this seminar, Indiana Law continues to attract military officers seeking legal education. This year, four Navy, Marine, and Air Force officers are attending Indiana Law, in addition to nine Army officers studying here through the Judge Advocate General's Funded Legal Education Program.