During Spring 2020, the American Branch of the International Law Association held a webinar series on COVID-19 and International Law in response to a call from students and the broader community for reliable and informative programming on an evolving global issue. Three virtual events considered these highly relevant issues, co-sponsored by the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis and the Washington University Law Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute.

The first webinar, COVID-19 and International Law: A Snapshot, was held via Zoom on April 28, 2020 (flyer). The event was co-sponsored by the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute and the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis. The webinar included four panelists: Professor Frederick Abbott, Co-Chair of the Committee on Global Health Law of the International Law Association and Professor of International Law at Florida State University; Ms. Sara Yang Bosco, Senior Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel at Emerson Electric Co.; Professor Gian Luca Burci, Former Legal Counsel, World Health Organization and Adjunct Professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies of Geneva; and Professor Jonathan Hafetz, Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School and Senior Staff Attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. The panel was moderated by Professor Leila Nadya Sadat, Director, Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute, James Carr Professor of International Law at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, and President of ABILA.

On May 14, 2020, the American Branch, along with the above co-sponsors, hosted a second webinar on Zoom, Immigrants and Refugees During COVID-19: State Responses and Responsibilities. The event consisted of a panel of three experts, moderated by Professor Sadat: Mr. Firas Kayal, Senior Policy Advisor, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; Professor Katie Herbert Meyer, Assistant Professor of Practice and Director of the Immigration Law Clinic at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law; and Professor Kim Thuy Seelinger, Director, Center for Human Rights, Gender and Migration, Institute of Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis. Find the flyer here.

The third webinar of the series, Security vs. Liberty?: COVID-19 and Challenges to National Security Law, was also co-sponsored by the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis and the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute. The event took place on June 11, 2020 via Zoom (flyer), with three panelists, moderated by Professor Sadat: Mr. John Berger, Senior Fellow and Managing Editor and Moderator of Vital Interests: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Global Reset, Center on National Security; Ms. Neema Singh Guliani, Senior Legislative Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union; and The Honorable Andrew C. Weber, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs and Senior Fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks.