Legal Committee (LEGAL)

APPROXIMATE COMMITTEE SIZE: 160 Single Delegations

LEGAL focuses on promoting justice and the rule of international law globally. Topic A will be creating legal protections against foreign election interference, whether through implicit interference through social media or explicit technological interference like cyberattacks. Delegates will consider how to develop frameworks and pathways to protect nations from foreign election interference. Topic B will address the role of multinational corporations in democracy, especially concerning technological cooperation. Delegates will consider whether nations and corporations should be treated equally in diplomacy and how the rules of contact between corporations and nations should be clarified and modernized for the 21st century.

Chairs: Shrutha Venkatesan & Erin Tran

Contact the DAIS

TOPICS

Topic A: Creating Legal Protections Against Foreign Election Interference

Topic B: Addressing the Role of Multinational Corporations in Diplomacy

topic abstract
BACKGROUND GUIDE

lEARNING OBJECTIVES

  • Gain a deep knowledge of how elections have been affected by foreign states and actors, and the steps nations have taken to protect their electoral processes.

  • Explore and examine existing international legal frameworks, and how those frameworks have succeeded and failed in the past. 

  • Examine the role multinational corporations are playing in modern diplomacy and how they engage with national governments.

about the chairs

Shrutha Venkatesan is a member of the Class of 2026 in the Walsh School of Foreign Service, majoring in Science, Technology, and International Affairs with a Certificate in International Business Diplomacy. She hails from Rockville, Maryland (about 30 minutes away from Georgetown), which is why she is excited to welcome all of you to the DC area this February! Shrutha competed at NAIMUN in her junior and senior years of high school in ECOSOCs, and her experience was so positive that it motivated her to come to Georgetown. She served on secretariat her sophomore year of college as NAIMUN’s Under-Secretary-General of Contemporary Crisis as well as the Director of Philanthropy for NCSC, NAIMUN’s sister conference. As a result, she is incredibly excited (and sad!) to be staffing her final NAIMUN. Other than Model UN, Shrutha is also involved with Georgetown’s Dharmic Meditation Center, Hilltop Consultants (an on-campus consulting club), and most recently studied abroad in Singapore her junior spring (ask her about it!). She can’t wait to meet all of you!

Erin Tran is a member of the class of 2026. She is pre-med and pursuing a degree in Biochemistry with a minor in Justice and Peace Studies. Some of her hobbies are working out, exploring art museums in DC (she highly recommends visiting either the National Gallery of Art or the Hirshorn if you have the time), and getting her daily sweet treat from local cafes/boba shops. Erin volunteers as an EMT in Maryland and is a part of the Rebeck Lab, where she conducts research on the effect of chemotherapy on neuronal inhibitory regulation in Alzheimer’s Disease risk mouse models.

Committee SPeaker

Joshua Geltzer joined WilmerHale after serving as Deputy Assistant to the President, Deputy White House Counsel, and Legal Advisor to the National Security Council (NSC), providing legal counsel to the President and White House leadership on matters of national defense, intelligence, and foreign relations. Before that, he was Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Homeland Security Advisor, where he advised on counterterrorism, election security, migration management, and the release of US hostages and wrongful detainees. Dr. Geltzer also served as Special Assistant to the President and Special Advisor on Countering Domestic Violent Extremism, overseeing the development and implementation of the country's first-ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.

As the former top national security lawyer for the White House, Dr. Geltzer offers both strategic counsel and practical legal advice to clients navigating the statutory and regulatory issues associated with emerging technologies across all sectors.