Five Years Out: Emma Iannini ’20
Judicial Clerk, International Court of Justice
Describe your clerkship position. What were the challenges? What did you like most about it?
I served as Judicial Fellow (JF) to Judge Peter Tomka at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague from September 2024 to July 2025. The International Court of Justice is the supreme judicial organ of the United Nations. It maintains jurisdiction under its statute as well as under the UN Charter to hear contentious cases that are brought by one state against another state for breach of their obligations under relevant treaty or customary international law. It also has the power under Article 96 of its statute and Article 65 of the UN Charter to consider another set of cases, advisory opinions, which are requested by either the UN General Assembly or authorized UN organs. The court’s decisions in advisory opinions, in contrast to those made in contentious cases, are non-binding.
My role as JF was essentially providing advice to my judge as well as legal research on pertinent questions that come to the court.
How did you come to be a Judicial Fellow?
When I came to NYU, I knew already that I wanted to be an international lawyer and had an interest specifically in public international law, human rights, and issues specifically affecting women and children. The ICJ is in a privileged position as the supreme judicial organ of the UN with very wide jurisdiction under various human rights treaties, environmental treaties, and other instruments that confer jurisdiction upon it. Throughout my year at the court, I assisted Judge Tomka with research and advice on many issues that I care deeply about, especially in relation to climate change, international human rights law, and the rights of women and children.
I applied to the ICJ’s Judicial Fellowship Programme through the Law School. Hundreds of candidates are each sponsored and nominated by their universities, and it’s a rigorous vetting and application process. I feel extremely lucky to have been chosen for this coveted and prestigious position.
How did NYU Law prepare you for your career path?
NYU is an excellent—if not the best—law school in the United States to go to if you’re interested in international law writ large, be it public international law, which primarily deals with states and international organizations, or private international law, which primarily deals with private actors such as corporations, firms, etc. across different jurisdictions. NYU is wonderful because it offers dozens of courses focusing on international law, which is certainly not the case for many American law faculties. I took every course related to international law that I could.
Professor José Alvarez’s International Organizations class was very useful for better understanding the UN and its panoply of agencies. I also recall being very interested in Ryan Goodman’s International Humanitarian Law course, which is useful to have taken since the ICJ currently has several cases related to international humanitarian law pending before it now. I also took International Human Rights Law with Philip Alston, who is truly a legend in the field, as well as the UN Diplomacy Clinic with [Adjunct Professor] Bryce Rudyk [LLM '08] and [Wilf Family Professor of Property Law] Katrina Wyman. I was placed as a legal intern in the Permanent Mission of Antigua and Barbuda to the UN in New York City. It was incredibly interesting to see how things function in the General Assembly and getting to advise the representatives of a UN member state.
Martti Koskenniemi, a Hauser Global Professor of Law who taught History of International Legal Thought: A Critical View, is a giant in the field of international law, and his course was fascinating. It provided me a critical perspective on how international law was developed in its early centuries, since the Columbian Exchange, with an idea towards maximizing the legal interests of colonial powers in the New World and in other places around the globe. It’s good to have a critical perspective as an international lawyer in the 21st century, thinking about how and why international law was conceived, how it’s developed structurally, and the lasting inequalities, unfortunately, that may flow from this.
A lasting memory from my international law studies is how Professor Alvarez really inspired students in his International Organizations class. He uses a somewhat Socratic method to go back and forth with queries about how certain events in UN history were shaped by the law, by the Charter, and by different UN General Assembly and UN Security Council resolutions. As a person who likes debating, I very much enjoyed those exchanges with Professor Alvarez and my classmates.
What were your favorite activities at the Law School?
Besides the UN Diplomacy Clinic, there were also opportunities to get oral advocacy experience at NYU through international moots. I did the FDI Moot and the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot multiple times, and later coached NYU’s Vis Moot team after I graduated. Those gave me highly practical capacities that have been very helpful for me as a practitioner and also at the ICJ.
I also served as a commentary editor for the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics—later contributing an article to that publication—and a student scholar at the US-Asia Law Institute. I lived and worked in China for six months in 2017 before Law School, and I appreciated the chance to specifically study East Asia and its perspectives, approach, and influence on international law. It also gave me a chance to use my ever-rusting Mandarin, which I’ve studied on-and-off since boarding school.
What memory from your Law School days stands out the most?
It probably goes back to the UN Diplomacy Clinic, walking into the UN General Assembly and sitting in the seats of Antigua and Barbuda to represent the state in that venue. That was something that I had dreamed of and never thought I truly would experience.
And again, it’s one of the privileges that NYU can afford you. Being situated in New York is like being on Broadway for international law: UN headquarters is right there. Only perhaps The Hague or Geneva are comparable as places of importance for international law.
If you could go back in time, what kind of advice would you give yourself?
One quality I have grown and developed since becoming a lawyer is persistence in chasing after my goals and ambitions. In law school and as a lawyer, you will always be faced with setbacks. And even though perfectionism is sometimes encouraged, you come to the realization very quickly and humbly that nobody is perfect. You are not perfect, your colleagues are not perfect, and even if you make mistakes, it’s the right thing to do to own up to them, learn from them, and try to do better next time. The value of resilience is very important.
The other thing I would advise is to never forget the reason why you wanted to become a lawyer. For me, it goes back to wanting to help people. That’s what being an advocate means, to advocate not on behalf of yourself, but on behalf of others who might be less fortunate than you in life. And I think it’s important to always reflect on that periodically (or even better, daily!) as we venture away from school and into our careers.
In what ways do you think NYU Law graduates are distinct from alumni of other schools?
I think NYU graduates have this focus on the public interest, on thinking about the world beyond themselves—being a humanitarian not only in a legal sense, but in a sense of pursuing the basic values of humanity, whether it be in the form of human rights or otherwise.
Another quality is sociability, an ease and a love of being around people. I think we’re very well situated in Washington Square Park. I’ve joked with people that if you had to pick a center point or capital of the human universe for the social sciences, for art, music and theatre, for culture, for grassroots politics, you could maybe put it at Washington Square Park. It’s at least a competitor. Anyway, I think the location of the school attracts and impacts NYU Law students in a unique and wonderful way.
What is your current professional role?
I am now an international disputes associate at Boies Schiller Flexner in London. In my practice, I focus on high-value, complex international investment and commercial arbitration and litigation. My experiences at NYU Law and my exposure to rigorous public international law work during my time as an ICJ clerk were invaluable in preparing me for what I do today.
This interview has been condensed and edited.