Following a highly successful first year, the Constitutional Transitions Clinic is pleased to welcome the second cohort of student researchers. The group will act as a “back office” for constitutional advisors in the field, providing them with timely and comprehensive research to improve their effectiveness as advisors in the field.
This year the clinic brings together nine J.D. candidates and two LL.M. candidates from NYU Law. The students work under the close supervision of Faculty Director Sujit Choudhry and Director of Clinical Programming Katherine Glenn Bass. The clinic team works to meet the needs of the Center’s clinical client. This year is the second year of the Center’s 2012–14 partnership with the West Asia and North Africa office of International IDEA.
The student researchers have been selected to ensure they possess a wide range of skills and experiences that will benefit the research they are undertaking. Between them, they have worked in Australia, Argentina, Canada, Egypt, Rwanda, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and numerous other countries. Some bring sophisticated second language abilities, and others an awareness of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region owing to professional, academic or personal experiences there.
Two of this year’s students spent the past summer working full time for International IDEA, initially from the Cairo office and later from Tunis following a redeployment due to the deteriorating security situation in Egypt. More information on their experience is available here.
Last year’s clinic students authored three comparative reports for International IDEA, each providing detailed information on the policy options available to states undergoing transitions as part of the Arab Spring. The reports—on executive-legislative relations, constitutional court appointments, and political party finance—will be used by IDEA in constitution building activities in Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, and elsewhere. The students also travelled to Tunisia in April 2013, where they presented their research at the University of Tunis Al-Manar’s Faculty of Law and Political Science, and later were honored by a private audience with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki.
Related:
CT Researchers Meet with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki
(10 April 2013)
CT Clinic Researchers Present Reports at University of Tunis
(8 April 2013)
Constitutional Transitions Clinic Completes First Year
(3 July 2013)