LL.M. Degree

Being Dean´s Fellow is an opportunity that is offered to students to work at the Academy of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law from 10 to 20 hours a week. Dean´s Fellows help coordinate the the Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court Competition, the Program of Advanced Studies in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law , and the LL.M. in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. This is an opportunity for students to gain experience in administrative skills and research in Human Rights.

Promoting Human Rights through Teaching, Scholarship, and Service. AUWCL established the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law as part of its long-standing commitment to international human rights and the rule of law. For nearly 30 years, the Center has worked with students, faculty and the international legal community to provide support for human rights initiatives in the U.S. and around the world through teaching, scholarship and service. The Center engages in exciting innovations in human rights education and advocacy by way of training, complementary education, outreach, workshops and conferences, and research and publications. All Center programming promotes the value of service, thereby grounding the Center as a core resource to the NGO community and a bridge between academia and civil society.

GQUAL is a global campaign that seeks to promote gender parity in international tribunals and monitoring bodies. GQUAL seeks to study nomination and election procedures and implement differentiated strategies with the objective of including gender parity as a consideration and goal within them. This will also require taking into account the many differences between each State that takes part in the nomination process, and the many different procedures established for each international body. Over the next five years, the campaign will deploy three key strategies to promote parity in international bodies. GQUAL will: 1. Work with a number of States from different regions to adopt pledges to nominate and vote for international positions in parity. 2. Work with international tribunals and bodies and the international organizations that host them to promote the development of legal standards, guidelines, and mechanisms that incorporate gender parity as a criterion and objective of selection procedures, and make them more transparent and participatory 3. Create an engaged and active network to coordinate, strengthen and globalize the campaign’s actions through coordinated research, advocacy and communications. The campaign promotes the study of the under-representation of women in international bodies from the perspective of the law of human rights and will engage with international bodies to develop a better understanding of this implication.

The Human Rights Brief is a student-run publication and online resource of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (Center) at American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL). With a staff of nearly fifty students, the HRB reports on developments in international human rights and humanitarian law, with pieces by practitioners, academics, law students, and international legal scholars. The Human Rights Brief was founded in 1994, and it has a broad domestic and international audience, with thousands of visitors to the website each month. The Human Rights Brief provides continuous up-to-date content on cutting-edge legal issues. It is supported by an expert Faculty Advisory Board, including Faculty Director for the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Macarena Saez, Dean Emeritus Claudio Grossman, Professor David Hunter, Professor Juan Mendez, Professor Robert Goldman, Professor Diane Orenthlicher, and Professor Anita Sinha. In 2019, the Human Rights Brief celebrated its 25th Anniversary, and anticipates the launch a new website in 2020. Staff applications open at the beginning of every Fall semester, and we accept applications from 1, 2, and 3Ls as well as LLM students attending AUWCL. Our goal is to continue growing in staff, readership, and quality of analysis.

Every year, the War Crimes Research Office (WCRO) seeks students including LL.M. students to represent the Washington College of Law in international criminal law and humanitarian law (IHL) competitions. This is a great opportunity for students to participate in the Jean-Pictet and Clara Barton IHL Competitions and the International Criminal Court Moot.

This practicum is intended to give students an opportunity to engage in real-life projects dealing with the investigation and prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Students will work on projects of the Washington College of Law’s War Crimes Research Office (WCRO) undertaken in partnership with organizations involved in the investigation and prosecution of serious international crimes, including international and internationalized courts and tribunals; domestic courts with jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute such crimes; and government offices and inter- or non-governmental groups working in support of the investigation or prosecution of such crimes. Under close supervision of the instructor and in collaboration with WCRO’s professional staff, students will work on specific projects and develop some of the fundamental research, writing and advocacy skills critical for practice in this rapidly evolving field. The projects vary and may involve several types of legal and advocacy work, including drafting memoranda of law in response to issues raised by the practice or jurisprudence of tribunals tasked with prosecuting war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide; amicus briefs on particular issues raised in one or more cases; practitioner training manuals; legislative/rule-making proposals; or fact-finding reports or analyses.

The National Immigrant Women's Advocacy Project (NIWAP, pronounced new-app) addresses the needs of immigrant women, immigrant children, and immigrant victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and other crimes by advocating for reforms in law, policy, and practice. NIWAP is a national provider of training, legal and social science research, policy development, and technical assistance to advocates, attorneys, pro bono law firms, law schools, universities, law enforcement, prosecutors, social service, and health care providers, justice system personnel, and other professionals who work with immigrant women, children and crime victims. Our work supports those in the field and in government who work to improve laws, regulations, policies, and practices to enhance legal options and opportunities for immigrant women and children.

The Summer Law Program in The Hague is the product of a unique collaboration between the War Crimes Research Office of American University’s Washington College of Law, established in 1995 to provide specialized legal research assistance to international/ized criminal tribunals, and the T.M.C. Asser Institute, one of the most prominent research institutes of international law in Europe. Through the Program, participants will have the opportunity to learn about key issues in international law among the practitioners, courts, and tribunals that are making history today.