Constitutional Transitions Clinic and Colloquium: The Middle East Revolutions (for LL.M.s)
|
LW.12144 / LW.12145 |
Fall and Spring for LL.M.s (See year-long clinics for J.D. info) 6 credits* No prerequisites or co-requisites |
Introduction
The Constitutional Transitions Clinic and Colloquium: The Middle East Revolutions is sponsored by the newly-created Center for Constitutional Transitions (Constitutional Transitions) at the NYU School of Law, which launches on 30 March 2012. Constitutional Transitions will be the world’s leading academic center that supports constitutional transitions through agenda-setting research, and will train the next generation of constitutional practitioners in this area. The Constitutional Transitions Clinic and Colloquium: The Middle East Revolutions is a joint project of Constitutional Transitions and the Cairo office of International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), an intergovernmental organization that supports sustainable democracy worldwide, with 27 member states. IDEA’s mission is to support sustainable democratic change by providing comparative knowledge, and assisting in democratic reform, and influencing policies and politics.
Course Description
The clinic and colloquium will blend clinical education and the generation of research of direct and immediate use to constitutional processes currently underway in the Middle East and North Africa. The overall goal is to provide support to constitutional processes in response to local needs, by laying down a comparative research foundation for domestic constitutional choice on those issues where comparative experience is thought to be helpful and relevant. Students will build important skills (policy analysis, contextualization of advice, presentation and advocacy) in way that is sensitive to the political and volatile context of constitutional transitions in the Middle East, in a culturally sensitive manner.
Fieldwork
Students will work under the direct supervision of Sujit Choudhry and a Fellow, and will be divided into three or four teams, each tasked with the production of a research report on an issue of central importance to constitutional transitions in the Middle East and North Africa, where there is a need for comparative, in-depth research to provide a comparative research foundation for domestic constitutional choice. These questions will be identified by IDEA. Potential topics include security sector oversight, parliament-executive relations, and anti-corruption frameworks. Research will include the constitutional status quo for a limited number of constitutional frameworks in the Middle East and North Africa, including the reasons for their historical development, as well as the constitutional experiences of other transitional democracies such as South Africa, as well as those in Eastern and Central Europe and Latin America, and successful post-colonial experiences (e.g. India).
There will be regular, sustained student contact with the Cairo office of IDEA. In addition, students will travel to the Middle East and North Africa in March 2013 in order to present draft reports.
The Colloquium
In lieu of a traditional clinical seminar, students will attend a colloquium, drawing leading experts from the North America, Europe and the Middle East on the constitutional law and politics of the region. The colloquium will convene over both semesters. Participants will include (a) scholars whose work addresses broader questions of constitutional design and interpretation of relevance to the Middle East and North Africa and beyond; and (b) scholars with expertise in the issues to be addressed in student research reports, who will meet separately with the students prior to the formal colloquium.
Qualifications for Applicants
J.D. students are expected to have previously taken U.S. Constitutional Law, or to take it concurrently with the clinic. There are no pre-requisites for LL.M.s.
Application Procedure
Students should submit an application, resume and transcript on-line via CAMS. Jennifer Canose will contact you to schedule an interview with Sujit Choudhry. Please note there is a separate application form for LL.M. students. The application deadline for LL.M. students is August 15, 2012 for the fall term and October 15, 2012 for spring. If you have questions, please direct them to Sujit Choudhry at sujit@nyu.edu.
* 6 credits includes 3 clinical (fieldwork) credits and 3 colloquium credits.