About PILAC
About PILAC
About PILAC
About PILAC
HLS PILAC
Drawing on its world-class faculty and its extraordinary students, the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC) provides a space for research on critical challenges facing the various fields of public international law related to armed conflict — including the jus ad bellum, the jus in bello (international humanitarian law/the law of armed conflict), international human rights law, international criminal law, the law of state responsibility, and other relevant fields. In collaboration with student researchers, scholars, and practitioners, we engage with states, intergovernmental organizations, U.N. system actors, and NGOs through an array of activities.
Objective and Approaches
HLS PILAC’s objective is to explore and understand contemporary challenges concerning armed conflict through the lens of international law. Its mode is critical, independent, and rigorous. Its methodology fuses traditional public international law research, creative engagement with the ever-growing range of actors influencing contemporary battlefields, and targeted analysis on changing security environments.
The Program does not engage in advocacy. While its contributors may express a range of views on contentious legal and policy debates, HLS PILAC does not take institutional positions on these matters. With a focus on depth over breadth, the Program reaffirms the centrality of international law in regulating war-fighting, in diminishing the harmful effects of armed conflict, and in protecting civilians.
Founding Core Donor
The establishment of HLS PILAC was made possible through the generous seed support of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
Team
Team
Team
Research Assistants
Current (Partial List)
Luca Geary is a special student at the Harvard Griffin School of Arts and Sciences. He studied Law at the University of Oxford, graduating with a BA (First Class) in 2024 and BCL (Distinction) in 2025.
Ben Hines is an LL.M. student at Harvard Law School, and has been a Research Assistant for the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC) since September 2025.
Luisina Kemanian Leites is a second-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School and has been a Research Assistant for the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC) since September 2025
Margherita Bruti Liberati is an LL.M. student at Harvard Law School and she has been a Research Assistant for the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict since the Fall of 2025.
Lulu Mansour is a third-year law student at Harvard Law School and has been a Research Assistant for the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC) since September 2024.
Vaishnav Rajkumar is a second-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School and has been a Research Assistant for the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC) since September 2025.
George Tyler is a LL.M. student at Harvard Law School and has been a Research Assistant for the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC) since December 2025. George is currently contributing to research exploring how armed conflict affects the environment.
William Yuen Yee is a second-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School and has been a Research Assistant for the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC) since September 2025.
Omid Yeganeh is an LL.M candidate at Harvard Law School. His research with the Program on International Law and Armed Conflict concerns the interface between the law governing the resort to war (jus ad bellum) and the law governing conduct in war (jus in bello).
Previous (Partial List)
Arnaaz Ameer is a LL.M. candidate at Harvard Law School and, since Fall of 2022, a Research Assistant with the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict.
Lindsay Bailey is a third-year student at Harvard Law School and has been a Research Assistant at HLS PILAC since January of 2018. At HLS PILAC, Lindsay has contributed to a project examining acquiescence concerns and “Article 51 Reports,” as well as analysis concerning the relationships between international criminal law of war crimes and international humanitarian law.
As of spring 2022, Ryen Bani-Hashemi is a third-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School. As a Research Assistant at HLS PILAC, Ryen has worked on research projects related to the proportionality criterion in self-defense, working methods of the UN Security Council, and urban siege operations.
As of spring 2018, Emma Broches is a first-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School; as a Research Assistant at HLS PILAC, Emma currently supports the project on Self-Defense, States’ Silence, and the Security Council.
Elizabeth Carthy—an LL.M. student at Harvard Law School—has been a research assistant at PILAC since September 2014, working on the "Medical Assistance in Armed Conflict Project: IHL and State Responses to Terrorism."
Aarushi Nargas is an LL.M. student at Harvard Law School. As a research assistant at the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, she is currently analyzing the practice of the UN Security Council related to protection of civilians.
Gloria Chang is MArch II and MDes (Master in Design Studies) candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, with a concentration in Risk and Resilience. At HLS PILAC, Gloria finds graphic representations and methods to communicate the Program’s research visually.
Carson Cook is a second-year student at Harvard Law School. As a Research Assistant at PILAC, he supports the Counterterrorism and Humanitarian Engagement Project.
Lisa Daniels is a second-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School. As a research assistant at PILAC, Lisa supports the Goals of War and War’s End Project, developing a dataset of armed conflicts from 1945 through the present.
As a Research Assistant at PILAC, Claire DiMario supports the Counterterrorism and Humanitarian Engagement Project, conducting legal and policy research on the challenges of humanitarian protection in areas of armed conflict where listed armed groups control territory.
Robert (Bobby) Dyke is a second-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School and a Research Assistant with the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC). Bobby currently assists PILAC with developing a policy brief for their paper Quantum of Silence: Inaction and Jus ad Bellum.
Mazelle Etessami is a second-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School and a Research Assistant for the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC). Mazelle currently supports Professor Modirzadeh on the War Lawyering project.
Hayley Evans is a second-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School and, as of fall 2017, a Research Assistant at HLS PILAC.
Mohammad is an S.J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School. As a research assistant at PILAC, Mohammad examines—in English and Arabic—state practice and international law for the Extraterritorial Use of Lethal Force Project.
Hasan Dindjer is an LL.M candidate at Harvard Law School where he is studying as a Fulbright Scholar. In the fall of 2014, he worked as a Research Assistant at PILAC on the Extraterritorial Use of Lethal Force project.
Molly Doggett is a J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School and a Research Assistant at the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC).
Federica du Pasquier is currently a Master’s student at the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies and a Research Assistant at PILAC, where she supports the Counterterrorism and Humanitarian Engagement Project.
Cyprien Fluzin is an LL.M. candidate at Harvard Law School and a Research Assistant at the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict.
John Garrison is a second-year J.D. student at Stanford Law School and has been a Research Assistant for the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC) since September 2023.
Zach Grouev is a third-year student at Harvard Law School; as a Research Assistant at the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, he provides research support for the War Algorithms project.
Jiawei He is a Junior Research Fellow at the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict.
Jiahui Huang is an LL.M. candidate at Harvard Law School, and worked as a research assistant for PILAC in Fall 2014.
Thejasa Jayachandran is a first-year law student at Harvard Law School and a Research Assistant at the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC).
Simon Jerome is a third-year student at Harvard Law School. As a Research Assistant at the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, he currently provides research support for the War Algorithms project.
Joshua Kestin is a J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School. As a research assistant at PILAC, he works on the mapping exercise on accountability, autonomous (weapons) systems, and international law pertaining to armed conflict.
Katie King is a third-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School. She works as a Research Assistant for PILAC’s Counterterrorism and Humanitarian Engagement Project.
Yi Seul Kim is an LL.M. candidate at Harvard Law School. At PILAC, Kim conducts research on extraterritorial lethal-force operations, covering areas in East Asia and the Middle East.
Samantha Lint is a first-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School and a Research Assistant for the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC).
Yang Liu is an LL.M. student at the Harvard Law School and, as of fall 2017, a Research Assistant at the HLS PILAC.
Lloyd Lyall is a second-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School and has been a Research Assistant for the HLS Program on International Law and Armed conflict since the fall of 2022.