Practice Areas: International Law/Human Rights

Law School students, faculty, and staff have compiled the following list of resources to guide students interested in public international law and human rights. It is not an exhaustive list, but a place for you to begin your own research into this field. These are just some of the many opportunities and resources that you can take advantage of in pursuing your public service interest area.

To get you started, you should study the frequently asked questions document and all of the links to internships, fellowships and job boards.

The National Association of Law Placement (NALP) also has a helpful outline entitled, Finding and Funding International Public Service Opportunities.

Note: The field of public international law overlaps with environmental law; government; asylum and refugee law; LGBT law; and other fields. Be sure to check out those practice area Web pages as well.

Student Groups
International Law Society
Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition
Michigan Journal of International Law
SNARL
WTO Moot Court

The Law School has more than 50 student organizations, many which run their own public service projects. Please note that from academic year to year, new student organizations form while others may become inactive.

Programs
Center for International and Comparative Law - The Center sends notices of events, speakers, conferences, and other opportunities related to international or foreign matters to an e-mail group made up of interested law students, faculty and administrators. The Center actively seeks out notice of events taking place throughout the University as well as some non-University events and opportunities, and disseminates this information to our "international interest e-mail group." To add your name to the e-mail list to be notified of upcoming Workshops, please contact Stephanie Wiederhold at wls@umich.edu.
International Programs and Study Abroad Opportunities
International Law Workshop
Program for Cambodian Law and Development
Program in Refugee and Asylum Law
Geneva Externship Program
South Africa Externship Program
International Court of Justice University Traineeship Program

Fellowships
University of Michigan Fellowships in International Law

Office of Student Affairs
The Office of Student Affairs maintains a list of externship placement opportunities by practice area, and where available, comments from past externs.

Jobnet

Career Resources

• American Friends Service Committee
• American Society of International Law - A comprehensive Web site which organizes international law opportunities by topic such as international tribunals, international human rights law, international environmental law, etc.
• NALP - Post Graduate International Fellowships
• Riley Guide - links to all major international job sites

Organizations

• Amnesty International USA
• Human Rights Watch
• The People's Movement For Human Rights Learning
• U.S. State Department
• Junior Professional Officer Program
• U.S. Agency for International Development
• U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of the General Counsel, Commerical Law Development Program
• U.S. International Trade Commission
• U.S. Trade Representative
• World Organization for Human Rights USA

International Resources

Career Resources

• American Indian Foundation Service Corps Fellowship
• Open Society Research Fellowship Opportunities
• Relief.Web Vacancies
• United Nations - Human Resources
  • United Nations - Development Programme Opportunities
  • United Nations - World Food Programme

Organizations

• African Governance, Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP)
• American Friends Service Committee Job Postings
• The AIRE Centre
• The Development Executive Group
• International Court of Justice
• International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Tanzania)
• International Human Rights Funders Group
• International Law Commission
• International Law Institute
• International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific
• Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health
• Justice for Widows and Orphans Project (Zambia)
• Kenya Human Rights Commission (Kenya)
• Ministry of Human and Minority Rights (Belgrade, Serbia)
• NYU Center for Human Rights and Global Justice
• NYU Jean Monnet Center
• Office of the Principle Defender at the Special Court for Sierra Leone
• Open Society Institute
  • Open Society Institute - Central Eurasia Project
  • Open Society Institute - East Africa Initiative
  • Open Society Institute - Latin America and Caribbean Initiative
  • Open Society Institute - Turkey and Middle East Initiative
  • Open Society Institute - Economic and Business Development Program
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
• Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)
• United Nations
  • United Nations - Office of Legal Affairs
  • United Nations - High Commission on Human Rights
  • United Nations - International Law
• World Health Organization (WHO)
• World Trade Organization

Please note that although we provide links and resources, the University of Michigan Law School does not necessarily endorse any of the organizations listed. If any of the links above are broken or you have suggestions for additional resources, please contact ops@umich.edu.