Fellowships for Students

Through internationally-oriented fellowships for summer work, our three-week Winter Term, and after graduation, Harvard Law School facilitates opportunities for students to acquire the hands-on experience that will enhance their law careers in countries all over the world. Students take advantage of these opportunities in a variety of ways, tailoring their work to their own specific interests and skills. International Legal Studies also provides occasional discretionary grants to defray costs for students undertaking independent projects abroad.

Examples of recent placements through the Chayes International Public Service Summer Fellowships and Human Rights Program Summer Fellowships include:

United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials, Cambodia
Preparing legal memoranda on prosecutorial discretion and admissibility of evidence
American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, China
Drafting a report on legal empowerment and access to justice
Development Alternatives Inc., Democratic Republic of the Congo
Conducting an institutional evaluation of the Congolese Ministry of Justice and providing recommendations to the Minister of Justice about ways to strengthen the justice sector
Reprieve, England
Conducting research on CIA rendition flights and the condition and legal status of US-run prisons in Afghanistan
Human Rights Law Network, India
Developing a litigation strategy on access to abortion in India
Kenya Law Reform Commission
Conducting research on the costs and benefits of establishing a special tribunal for Kenya to try the perpetrators of election violence
Centre for Microfinance, Nepal
Drafting a law that establishes a central agency that would regulate microfinance institutions and services
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, The Netherlands
Making pretrial preparations for a key witness’s examination
Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme
Writing a report on Sierra Leone’s criminal justice system and the state of judicial independence