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Each summer the Externship Program may have part-time positions available in various countries, depending on staffing. In 2007, a limited number of two-credit judicial externships were available in Uganda. A judicial externship may be available in Costa Rica in 2008 for a student who is completely fluent in Spanish.
The Externship Program has full-time international externships available for spring and fall semesters in both The Hague and Geneva. If you are interested in any of these positions, listed below, please meet with the Externship Director to discuss both the position and eligibility. Most of the sites have asked that the Externship Program screens applicants and, in some cases, send the applications directly to our contact rather than to the general contact listed on the Web site. For all the full-time positions, though, you must have completed 60 credits and be in the top 50% of your class.
Full-time externships for fall and spring semesters are 15 credits and require that students begin work on the first day of the semester and work through the entire exam period. For some international sites, this time period is fine, but others give preference to students who will work for five or six months. Students also complete a seminar requirement that involves meeting with the externship director for several sessions, writing a paper and a critique of the site, and completing journal entries and time sheets.
The Externship Program currently has five full-time externship opportunities in Geneva. Four of the positions focus on world trade, with at least two narrowing the focus to intellectual property law: WTO, WIPO, ITC, and CIEL. The first three are UN organizations, but CIEL, which stands for Center for International Environmental Law, is a watchdog ngo focused on WIPO policies that affect sustainable development. The fifth site is the ILO, International Labor Organization.
The ITC is the joint technical cooperation agency of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and WTO for business aspects of trade development. Although the ITC generally takes only one legal extern per semester, our contacts are looking forward to reviewing an application sent by SU.
The student should have the following qualifications:
Note that our contact who probably would conduct the phone interviews is from Paris, so students claiming proficiency in French would be put to the test rather quickly. Fluency in another language might suffice, but talk to the director of SU’s externship program.
Although the ITC takes externs in several departments, a student must work in the legal department under the supervision of a lawyer to receive externship credit.
See the ITC Web site at www.intracen.org for more information, but apply through the SU externship office.
Obtaining an externship at the WTO is not an easy matter. Although the site takes three to four students from the USA each year, not all of those are in law. Only an externship in the legal department qualifies for externship credit. Competition is very strong, and our contact emphasized that he will consider only those students with top credentials and a real interest in international trade. An applicant should have the following qualifications:
The contact requires that the Externship Program screens the applicants carefully before forwarding applications. Once the Externship Program has completed the screening, a letter of recommendation will be sent, along with the application. Check the WTO Web site for more information about the organization at www.wto.org but apply through the SU externship office.
WIPO hires very few externs but will take them for up to six months (spring or fall semester). The organization is “dedicated to helping to ensure that the rights of creators and owners of intellectual property are protected worldwide and that inventors and authors are, thus, recognized and rewarded for their ingenuity.” WIPO administers 17 treaties, and legal externs assist in that work.
Prerequisites:
Our contact emphasized the “keen interest” because the field supervisors select externs with a view to channeling them into full-time work at WIPO following graduation.
SU must screen applicants and send our contact only the top few for each semester. Please see the WIPO Web site at www.wipo.int and contact the SU externship office if interested.
CIEL generally takes only one intern at a time. When I visited in spring 2007, though, CIEL had two fellows and two interns; the fellows have law degrees but the interns do not. The fellows and interns are involved in meetings, observe WIPO, conduct research, do not perform administrative work, and help with CIEL projects, most of which involve the intersection of intellectual property and biodiversity. Sample writing projects for the fellows and intern focus on sustainable development in more specific areas, such as the following: the Vienna Conference on rules governing agreements; impact assessments requirements; and biodiversity product liability. Writing skills must be very strong.
Prerequisites:
Housing is difficult to find in Geneva, but CIEL has a list of possibilities. Applicants must provide proof of health insurance and permission from the Swiss government. As a result, CIEL must decide about externs at least two or three months before they are due to arrive.
The first SU extern worked at CIEL during spring semester 2008 and found the experience transformative. Review the CIEL Web site at www.ciel.org for more information and contact the SU externship program if interested.
This site has just been approved for externship credit. The ILO offers a wonderful opportunity for students to get a flavor of labor and employment issues at the international level. Although the ILO takes a number of externs each semester, very few are in the legal department. For externship credit, the student must work in the legal department.
The site is located in a modern building in Geneva, Switzerland. Externs work closely with the attorneys in a well-supervised program.
The Externship Program has three possible positions in The Hague at the present time: ICTY, the ICC, and the PCA. The competition for positions at any of the three is stiff, but the Externship Program has had more success placing students at the ICTY, which accepts more externs each semester. Additionally, these UN agencies have two official languages, English and French, and prefer fluency in both plus one other working language. Students lacking complete fluency in other languages, however, have been accepted.
At the ICTY, students may apply for either The Prosecutor’s Office (TPO) or Judicial Chambers. Three SU externs have now worked at ICTY, two in OTP and one in Chambers. Four more have been accepted for positions in the 2007-08 school year. The ICTY gives preference to students willing to work for six months. The Externship Program does screen applications for this position because the ICTY has blacklisted law schools that have sent unqualified applicants.
The TPO generally takes 10-12 externs per semester. About half of these externs are already lawyers, some with years of experience. Most countries require that students “article,” which is like completing a medical residency, before they can apply for full bar credentials. So those students complete a law degree, spend some time articling in an initial placement, and then often take a master’s or a Ph.D. in law before applying to the ICTY. Although law is an undergraduate degree in almost every country other than the USA, most of the hiring personnel have been through those programs and focus on the total years of training devoted to law. Still, the hiring personnel give preference to schools that provide good students, and SU students have performed very well.
In the TPO, students research both law and facts for the trials and have done briefing on certain issues. The trial phase of the ICTY will be winding down by the end of 2008. Only appellate work will be available from 2008-2010 if the ICTY’s case work remains on schedule.
A student applying for the TPO should have the following abilities or characteristics:
In Chambers, students work for judges, researching and writing about various aspects of law. In each judge’s chambers, a staff attorney oversees the externs’ work (the ICTY calls them interns). Externship positions in Chambers should be available through 2010. Applicants should have the abilities and characteristics listed above, but the research and writing must be stellar. The first SU extern to work in Chambers set a very high mark; in fact, her supervisor said she was the best extern he had supervised in his four years at the court. She had a marvelous work ethic as well and an even, calm, personable manner.
Review the ICTY Web site at www.un.org/icty/ for more information and contact the SU externship program if interested.
Like the ICTY, the ICC has three divisions: Presidency, Chambers, and Prosecution. SU law students may extern only in Chambers or Prosecution because Presidency requires too much administrative work.
The ICC has a different funding source, the European Union and either Norway or Finland, which permits it to offer more benefits to externs. Those benefits often include the return flight, medical coverage, and a housing stipend. Because of these benefits, the ICC receives an incredible number of applications for every position, so the positions are very difficult to obtain.
The ICC considers the following factors in selecting applicants:
Our contact at the site emphasized strong writing and drafting skills.
For more information about the ICC, review its Web site at www.icc-cpi.int and contact the SU externship program if interested.
Obtaining an externship at the PCA is incredibly difficult because the site takes only one extern a semester and the competition is world-wide. About 15% of the externs have been from the USA, but the PCA usually selects practicing attorneys or at least someone who has completed an L.L.M. The positions are available only for the semester, not for six months.
Preferences:
Visit the PCA’s Web site at www.pca-cpa.org and contact the Director of SU’s Externship Program for more information about applying.