ILM is an exceptional resource for scholars and practitioners of international law. As an active ASIL member for well over a decade, I have relied on ILM to keep me informed of developments across the field, from the latest U.S. Supreme Court decisions implicating foreign relations and international law to hot-button issues before international and regional tribunals, as well as noteworthy U.N. Security Council resolutions and key decisions of other international bodies.

For the last three years, I have had the privilege of being a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee (EAC) for ILM. Serving in this role has been an enriching experience that is among the highlights of my legal career. The breadth of materials published in ILM is the result of an exacting process that prioritizes diversity and accessibility, core principles that make ASIL stand out among the professional organizations geared toward practitioners of international law. Suggestions for materials to publish come in from ASIL members around the globe, representing a wide array of academic and professional expertise. The ILM Corresponding Editors who review those materials represent virtually every practice area – from international arbitration to international organizations, government lawyers to rule of law practitioners, academics, and more. The EAC’s members, although fewer in number, likewise hail from different countries and legal traditions and possess a comparable range of expertise.

EAC meetings feature thought-provoking discussions regarding each piece’s contribution to the field of international law and the potential value of publication to ASIL’s broad membership. Although groundbreaking decisions of influential bodies like the International Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights are more likely to be deemed worthy of inclusion, due consideration is given to materials that are less widely publicized, including decisions of arbitral tribunals and national courts. The EAC strives to ensure that ILM highlights a range of international legal developments and is useful for a broad audience.

Finally, the care that the ASIL team puts into each issue is truly remarkable. From summarizing the materials under consideration to aid the editors in making their selections to tracking down translations of obscure documents, no stone is left unturned and every detail is accounted for. The ASIL team also works with the Corresponding Editors and EAC to identify expert authors to craft introductory notes, so that readers are adequately informed of the substance and import of each item published. The end result is a product that is valuable for scholars and practitioners of all stripes. I am proud to a play role in the publication of such an important resource that has endured for 60 years, and that I hope will continue for hundreds of years to come.

In August 2022, ASIL is celebrating 60 years of International Legal Materials. This is the first in a series of blog posts about the anniversary. Visit the journal homepage here.

Sarah Freuden is an Attorney Adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State. She is also a Professorial Lecturer in Law at the George Washington University Law School, where she has taught Government Lawyering, Scholarly Writing, and Fundamental Issues in U.S. law for foreign LLM students. Sarah has been a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee for International Legal Materials since 2019 and served as a Corresponding Editor from 2018-2019.