Category Archives: Fellowships and Grants

The Chayes International Public Service Fellowship: snapshots from this summer

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This recent article on the Harvard Law School web site profiles five of the 26 HLS students who spent the summer of 2012 working abroad under the aegis of the Chayes International Public Service Fellowships, dedicated to the memory of Professor Abram Chayes, who taught at Harvard Law School for more than 40 years. The program is co-administered by the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising (OPIA) and International Legal Studies.

Applications for summer 2013 Chayes Fellowships are due on February 1, 2013, and information about placement organizations is available now. To learn about eligibility and how to apply, please visit the Chayes program’s Information for Students page.

Winter Term International Travel Pre-Departure Sessions

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International Legal Studies will hold a one-hour briefing for students who will be abroad over winter term. The session is REQUIRED for students who receive winter term international travel grants and is open to others who wish to attend. The session will offer information about preparing for winter term projects as well as health, safety, and other travel considerations, and facilitate interaction among students who are going to particular regions and those who have spent time there.

In order to accommodate students’ schedules, we will offer this single session on two different days:

Tuesday, November 27
12 p.m. – 1 p.m. 
Milstein East AB, Wasserstein Hall

and

Friday, November 30
12 p.m. – 1 p.m. 
Milstein East AB, Wasserstein Hall

Students are welcome to bring their lunches – dessert and beverages will be served. For more information or to determine which sessions will focus on particular regions, please e-mail Alexis Boyce at aboyce@law.harvard.edu.

Photo:  Jaime Latcham (JD ’12) and Joslyn Massengale (JD ’12) at a rally for the South Sudan Referendum in Tel Aviv, Israel, where they worked at the Refugee Rights Clinic at Tel Aviv University.

 

Disability Rights Advocate, S.J.D. Candidate, and 2012 Chayes Fellow

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“Disability rights victories in European Court of Human Rights won by HLS advocate,” a news story just posted on the HLS web site, profiles the work of Hungarian disability rights activist János Fiala-Butora (LL.M. ’10), an S.J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School and an associate of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability.

Jan’s advocacy, and his research, focuses on the idea that “people with disabilities should be able to make decisions about their medical treatment, just like everybody else.” His S.J.D dissertation will explore the institution of guardianship for people with disabilities in countries around the world.

This summer, he continued his work in Hungary and Croatia, traveling there with the support of the Chayes International Public Service Fellowship. Working with the Disability Rights Center in Hungary and the Office of the Ombudswoman for Persons with Disabilities in Croatia, he drafted a proposal to the Croatian government on the implementation of Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and researched international human rights standards and problems relating to the application of legal capacity (guardianship) legislation in Croatia and other Central European countries.

The Chayes Fellowships are dedicated to the memory of Professor Abram Chayes, who taught at Harvard Law School for more than 40 years. Please click here to find detailed information about the program.

A note (and a Note) from a Chayes Fellowship alumnus

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As a Chayes International Public Service Fellow, David Palko (JD ’12) spent the summer of 2010 working at the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, at the end of the Court’s first judicial year. On his return to HLS, he drew on the insights he gained in Kosovo in writing “The Risks of ‘Continuing Situation’ Litigation in Transitional Political Systems: Lessons from the ECtHR for the Constitutional Court of Kosovo,” a Note published this summer in the Harvard Human Rights Journal (Vol. 25).  You can read David’s Note here.

Looking back on the Chayes Program, David wrote “I am so grateful for the significant role it played in making my work possible.”  He is currently clerking for Judge Michael S. Kanne of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. 

 

Winter Term Opportunities: Writing and Clinical Projects and International Travel Grants

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All Harvard Law School students enroll in Winter Term for three weeks in January.  While all first-year students take a Problem-Solving Workshop at HLS, second- and third-year and LL.M. students may choose among a number of options for winter term.  Some of our students enroll in HLS courses offered in the winter term and receive law school classroom credits.  Other students devote the winter term to doing the research for or to writing a substantial paper under the supervision of an HLS faculty member through the Winter Writing Program. Students with prior approval may travel—domestically or abroad—to conduct research that they have shown cannot be done in Cambridge and is necessary to the success of the project. Students interested in a legal practice experience may participate in a clinical program during the winter term, which allows them to spend the three week term doing direct client services or research and writing for a non-profit, government, or public interest organization.  Recent Winter Term projects have enabled students to work for the South African Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons, examine antiquities trafficking in Guatemala, and study security regulations in Korea. Other projects have taken HLS students to China, Guyana, Haiti, India, Kenya, and Switzerland, to name just a few.  The Winter Term International Travel Grant Program provides funding to students for overseas travel during Winter Term.

Please join us on Tuesday, October 2 at 12 p.m. for an information session on Winter Term Opportunities:  Writing and Clinical Projects and International Travel. The session will be held in Wasserstein 2004; lunch will be served.

{Photo:  In January 2011, Randall Gonzalez-Villalobos (LLM ’11) and Maggie Morgan (JD ’11) conducted research on behalf of the Ghana Legal Resources Centre as part of Professor Lucie White’s course “Making Rights Real: The Ghana Project.”}