Call for Applications Winter Semester 2017
General information
The “International Humanitarian Law Clinic” is a platform in which students of the Leiden LL.M. program in Public International Law do research for various cooperation partners of the Kalshoven-Gieskes Forum in the humanitarian field. The students are supervised, on the one hand by researchers of the Forum, who are usually former students of the program and/or of the IHL clinic, and on the other hand, by PhD fellows and assistant professors engaged in the Forum.
The cooperation partners include the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Netherlands Red Cross, the German Red Cross, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC), Amnesty International the Hague, Médecins Sans Frontières, and other human rights NGOs. As of July 2017, 23 research projects were successfully concluded.
These projects have included topics involving the use of certain means of warfare, questions of humanitarian assistance, possible war crimes in special conflict areas, as well as a variety of recent problematic issues surrounding the application and interpretation of international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, international criminal law and human rights law.
Academic year 2017/18
For the winter semester of the academic year 2017/18, the Forum is planning to conduct six research projects with their cooperation partners. The projects are scheduled to start at the beginning of October 2017, and are expected to run until end of December 2017 / beginning of January 2018. The three-month research period for the projects will include introductory sessions on international humanitarian law (IHL), common seminar sessions and supervision by members of the Forum.
Requirements for becoming a team member
The Forum is looking for interested and motivated students, who are willing to work in a team of three students, and have the determination to produce a substantive report of high quality on issues raised by the cooperation partners within a period of three to four months.
Application documents
If you are interested in participating in the IHL clinic, please submit your application by Tuesday,
12 September 2017, 12:00 p.m. (noon) to the following email address: r.w.heinsch@law.leidenuniv.nl. Your application should consist of a (1) motivation letter, (2) a curriculum vitae, (3) an overview of the grades you obtained during your previous studies and (for February students) the Leiden LL.M. program and (4) an English writing sample (5 pages max). Please submit the four components of your application in one pdf-document and include your last name in the file name.