New Foundations for a Student Research Program

International lawyers are referred to as “conductors of the global symphony.” As the force of globalization continues to permeate borders, it must be remembered that lawyers more than anyone facilitate and shape this process and its effects. Yet legal education and the globalized practice of law remain largely disconnected. Globalization requires an understanding of vastly different legal traditions and theories of law embedded in different cultures, and differing professional roles for practitioners. It continues to shape the world and the expectations of students entering law school, and legal education must respond in kind.

ILP was founded and continues to be driven by students that recognize the gap between traditional legal education and the needs and opportunities of practicing law in a globalized world. Building on the success of our summer fellowship program and the newly developed Global Legal Education course, the 2009-2010 school year will see the launch of the ILP Global Governance and Law Research Program (GGLRP). The GGLRP will establish year-round international research partnerships and provide student participants with opportunities to engage with transnational law and policy issues and actors in a dynamic, practical, and innovative setting.

Program Overview

Consistent with ILP’s constitutional mandate, the GGLRP will seek opportunities to form collaborative research projects that focus on legal issues of central importance to the Global South. Through these partnerships, competent Osgoode students will provide supervised legal research assistance to partner organizations. In doing so, GGLRP fellows will provide our partners with sophisticated and innovative legal analysis, and will gain practical and meaningful opportunities to learn and become involved in critical transnational legal issues.

GGLRP fellows will be second and third year Osgoode students selected by the ILP Executive Committee through a formal application process. Once a partnership has been formed, a small group of students will develop research objectives and timelines in conjunction with the partner organization and supervising faculty. Depending on the needs of the partner, over the course of the project it is expected that fellows will produce a number of legal briefs/memos, as well as a more comprehensive report written as a group.

The production of a variety of briefs and reports in a client-driven setting will replicate some of the dynamic of real-world practice, and it is expected that all reports will be of a publishable quality. ILP and GGLRP partners will also identify conferences and other forums at which research fellows may have an opportunity to present their work on behalf of ILP and the partner organization.

Contact

Charlie Sherman
Research Director, International Legal Partnership
franksherman@osgoode.yorku.ca

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