Favorites for Human Rights and International Law? Forum

[lidialavonna]

Right now I've got NYU and Berkley on the list. Columbia is also there.

I'm currently a Lit/Global Studies major and am interested (though it seems trite to phrase it that way) in human rights and international justice. As strange as it may sound, I love talking about genocide and mass atrocities and going over possible solutions and institutions now in place to both help prevent and handle the aftermath of such events. I'm looking for a school that has a strong program/reputation in this type of area. International relations and law as well as human rights and global justice. Do any of you have suggestions or warnings or really any sort of helpful advice about which schools I should look into?

Thanks.

[johnnyutah]

As strange as it may sound, I love talking about genocide and mass atrocities and going over possible solutions and institutions now in place to both help prevent and handle the aftermath of such events.

This doesn't sound strange at all. In fact, it is extremely common among law school applicants. Any top US program will be useful to you if you try to pursue this as a career, but you should be warned that 1) you will have to do a ton of other kind of law stuff that has nothing to do with international justice 2) most people get disenchanted with international/human rights law after taking a class and 3) jobs in the area you're interested in are almost impossible to come by, especially right out of law school, so you may have to do something else with your degree, at least for a while.

[lidialavonna]

As strange as it may sound, I love talking about genocide and mass atrocities and going over possible solutions and institutions now in place to both help prevent and handle the aftermath of such events.

This doesn't sound strange at all. In fact, it is extremely common among law school applicants. Any top US program will be useful to you if you try to pursue this as a career, but you should be warned that 1) you will have to do a ton of other kind of law stuff that has nothing to do with international justice 2) most people get disenchanted with international/human rights law after taking a class and 3) jobs in the area you're interested in are almost impossible to come by, especially right out of law school, so you may have to do something else with your degree, at least for a while.

Thanks for the advice. I do realize that the type of work that I'm super interested in is... difficult to get into. I don't expect I'll ever be chief prosecutor for the ICC . But I would like to pursue it anyway. Who knows, maybe once I get to law school I'll find corporate law riveting and change my focus immediately. Until then though, I know what sparks my interest. I'm actually looking at taking a Law Course here at Sandra Day next semester. The school I'm a part of offers a few seats in law courses to juniors and seniors, and one of the courses is on human rights law. Hopefully I find it as riveting in a Law School setting as I do in my Global Studies Courses. And if not, my soul will be crushed before I spend a hundred thousand on Law School.

Out of curiosity, (I'm assuming you're either a law student or grad) which school did you or are you attending?

[bk1]

Go to the best school you can.

[worldtraveler]

As strange as it may sound, I love talking about genocide and mass atrocities and going over possible solutions and institutions now in place to both help prevent and handle the aftermath of such events.

This doesn't sound strange at all. In fact, it is extremely common among law school applicants. Any top US program will be useful to you if you try to pursue this as a career, but you should be warned that 1) you will have to do a ton of other kind of law stuff that has nothing to do with international justice 2) most people get disenchanted with international/human rights law after taking a class and 3) jobs in the area you're interested in are almost impossible to come by, especially right out of law school, so you may have to do something else with your degree, at least for a while.

Thanks for the advice. I do realize that the type of work that I'm super interested in is... difficult to get into. I don't expect I'll ever be chief prosecutor for the ICC . But I would like to pursue it anyway. Who knows, maybe once I get to law school I'll find corporate law riveting and change my focus immediately. Until then though, I know what sparks my interest. I'm actually looking at taking a Law Course here at Sandra Day next semester. The school I'm a part of offers a few seats in law courses to juniors and seniors, and one of the courses is on human rights law. Hopefully I find it as riveting in a Law School setting as I do in my Global Studies Courses. And if not, my soul will be crushed before I spend a hundred thousand on Law School.

Out of curiosity, (I'm assuming you're either a law student or grad) which school did you or are you attending?

Do you have any actual experience in the field, such as internships? If not, go do that first and then think about law school. You can't really get into the field without some experience prior to law school anyway, at least for the most part.

[amorfati]

bump.

[nianlong]

You can't really get into the field without some experience prior to law school anyway

This is fundamentally untrue. While it is true that an internship will help a whole lot, and is perhaps integral, to make the kind of connections and get the resume lines needed to land a job in the various international law fields, you can certainly do this during your 1L and 2L summers. The experience beforehand might help a little like if you worked in human rights advocacy for an NGO or something, but not nearly as substantially as if you landed an internship dealing with real international LEGAL issues. Yes, they're hard to come by, but they are there. PM me if you want some details.