Professor Dakota Rudesill has been appointed to the Advisory Committee of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Standing Committee on Law and National Security (SCOLANS). He will serve a one-year term beginning in August and have the opportunity to be reappointed for up to three years.   

SCOLANS is the oldest Standing Committee in the ABA and serves as a central forum for national security experts both in and out of government. As a member of the Advisory Committee, Rudesill will suggest topics for SCOLANS events, help line up speakers for these events and provide guidance when the ABA is doing a study or other analytical work that relates to his areas of expertise. This includes surveillance, use of force, intelligence, secrecy, constitutional law and nuclear weapons issues. 

“Nuclear dangers are back in a big way as a matter of global importance, thanks to the renewed nuclear arms race, truly alarming Kremlin nuclear threats and concerns generated by the Ukraine War,” said Rudesill. “It is a subject very few lawyers or legal scholars today know much about, but which is of enduring importance.” 

Although Rudesill is new to the Advisory Committee, he has been involved with SCOLANS programming for many years. In 2018, he brought the annual SCOLANS symposium to Moritz, which focused on national security, emerging technology and the law. Rudesill also led efforts for Ohio State to join other schools with major national security programs in co-sponsoring SCOLANS' annual gathering of the national security law tribe. 

“The national recognition for all that we do here at Ohio State on national security and the law has been gratifying,” he said. “I have greatly enjoyed my work with SCOLANS and look forward very much to that continuing as part of the Advisory Committee.”