Home>Academics>Master Programs>Sciences Po Law School Clinic>Capstone course international law in action
Capstone course international law in action
Course Description
Teachers: Dr. Sharon Weill and Adv. Omer Shatz
International Law in Action' is a selective one-year long course offered to students registered in PSIA's Human Rights in Humanitarian Action program.
The Capstone course aims to provide innovative legal education and training through practical work related to armed conflicts, transnational migration, counter terrorism and accountability for international crimes.
The main goals are to
- Provide students with research skills through applied work on concrete case studies, in collaboration with international legal professionals and institutions.
- Use innovative methodologies based on legal analysis and empirical field research, including trial observations, data collection, forensic investigations and interviews.
- Familiarize students with relevant legal institutions at the national and global level (ICRC, UN treaty bodies and special procedures, ICC…).
- Produce a final working paper/report/case study that will be submitted and/or presented to relevant professional partners, providing the students with an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution in the domain of human rights.
The teaching methodology has theoretical and practical aspects. During the first semester the course provides a theoretical overview of the relevant legal frameworks: International Law and the Use of Force, International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights and Refugee Law, and International Criminal Law. The normative discussion of the international legal order is politically contextualised and includes the mapping of the competent institutions and sources.
The second semester provides the students an opportunity to engage in practical legal research, fieldwork, or international strategic litigation. Over the course of this semester, the class is typically divided to two working groups, each pursuing their own legal clinical project.
Prerequisites
- language skills: French/English (or Spanish and/or additional languages are an advantage)
- a legal background is recommended
To be considered for admission, students need to:
- attend an information session on Thursday June 8 2023 at 1pm (Paris time).
- upload their CV and their cover letter in English or French by Thursday June 15, noon (Paris time) via the following form. An interview may be scheduled between June 19 and June 23 2023.
The final selection will depend on needs for each Project and on the balance within each team.
All applicants will be informed about the results of the selection by June 30 2023.
Clinical works
Professor Sharon Weill
French foreign fighters and judicial guarantees: Report prepared for the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of human rights while countering terrorism
Field trip to the United Nations and participation in the UPR of France (Geneva, January 2017).
With the aim of providing empirical findings to the UN Special rapporteur in her official visit to France, students prepared a report that included data collection, court observations and interviews with defence lawyers and prosecutors.
Outcome: Our report was submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur, Ms. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin on her official visit to France in May 2018. It was cited in the Report of the Special Rapporteur which was submitted to UN Human Rights Council in March 2019 (see Report of the Special Rapporteur).
Dr. Weill published an article in the ICRC review (Cambridge University Press), in which the work of the students is cited.
This project was supported by Court Watch (Open Society Foundations)
Professor Weill in collaboration with UC Berkeley.
The Trial of Hissene Habré: An Empirical Study of the Extraordinary African Chamber in Dakar, Senegal
In a joint project with The Berkeley Centre of Human Rights, University of California, students from the Capstone course and UC Berkeley went on a field trip to Dakar, to the Hybrid Court where the Former Chadian President was prosecuted for torture and crimes against humanity. We conducted interviews with different actors such as the judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, journalists and NGOs members.
Outcome: The editing of a book The President on Trial: Prosecuting Hissène Habré published by Oxford University Press (May 2020). A number of students served as assistant editors of the book. Read an interview about the book.
Project supported by the French Berkeley Foundation and the Matrix Foundation.
Professors Sharon Weill and Omer Shatz
The Colombian Special Jurisdiction for Peace
What is the role of national jurisdictions in providing accountability for international crimes? Focusing on the peace process in Colombia as a case study, we sought to better understand the function of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace tribunal, which had completed its first year of work. Our goal was to identify the main challenges the different legal actors faced and to inquire what contributions it had made in promoting accountability. During a field trip to Bogota we met with the different stakeholders involved in the transitional justice process and conducted interviews with judges, lawyers, NGOs and journalists.
Outcome: Report presented and submitted to the FIDH’s American Desk in France in assisting their work in Colombia.
Adv. Omer Shatz
EU migration policies in the Mediterranean and Libya
Over two academic years, the students conducted factual and legal research concerning EU migration policies in the Mediterranean and Libya, to better understand why international law fails to protect the lives and rights of migrants.
Based on the evidence the students gathered and the legal analysis they performed, the innovative project resulted in the submission of a ground-breaking case to the International Criminal Court, seeking to hold EU and Member States officials accountable for their acts and omissions.
The filing of the 245-pages brief sparked a wide legal and political discussion on the application of International Criminal Law to transnational migration policies. The EU Commission and European governments officially responded, and public hearings and conferences were held in the German Bundestag, EU Parliament, Spanish Congress, as well as at various academic and policy institutions across Europe.
Read the brief submitted by lawyer Omer Shatz and the Capstone course's students.
Read a press report by The Guardian.
Professor Sharon Weill
French Asylum Courts: Proposals for Reforms
Preparation of a report to be submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, France
Students will do trial observations and will interview different actors involved in the asylum proceedings in France (translators, lawyers, judges, NGOs) with the aim of preparing a report for the UN HRC in France, in which they will propose reforms.
Professor Sharon Weill
The class we went to observe the Bataclan historical trial in the court of Paris and they analyzed it in a comparative way with the 9/11 trial, which is currently taking place in Guantanamo. A conference was organized on this theme in April 2022 to explore how justice has been mobilized to combat terrorism from a national and global perspective. The video recording is available here:
Professor Weill focused on the Bataclan trial to discuss what lessons can be learned for the prosecution of mass crimes. She has been observing French terrorism trials since 2017 as part of a research group financed by the French Ministry of Justice (Mission droit et Justice). Dr Anne Charbord, Senior Legal Advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights while Countering Terrorism, situated this trial within the global legal architecture developed since 9/11. She presented the mandate of the Rapporteur and addressed the main concerns to human rights with reference to her own professional experience.
