“This January I worked on site for the Linklaters India Internship program in Mumbai and Delhi. The program gives students an insight into working in the legal sector of the closed Indian legal market while also conducting research for academic papers. This year we had 10 students interning at 4 firms and one corporate counsel. Adjusting to working in a new city is both challenging and exciting. The students were already masters of the city by the time I arrived a week into the program. Their ability to adapt to and absorb the culture was astounding. Meeting with the host firms and Jindal Global Law School fostered greater collaboration and support for student research.”
Tag Archives: Asia
Susan Farbstein, Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law, on her recent work in the International Human Rights Clinic
“This fall, I’ve supervised clinical projects linked to four different countries, conducting two field missions with students. It’s been a typically busy term—the kind of semester that reminds me why I love this job. To provide just one example, Clinical Director Tyler Giannini and I headed to Thailand with four clinical students to conduct interviews about the violence there last April and May. Those interviews will form the basis of a narrative-based project that presents diverse perspectives about the causes of the conflict and possible ways forward.”
Erum Sattar (SJD), on her involvement in Pakistan flooding relief efforts
“The devastating floods in Pakistan during the summer have brought together Pakistani students from all over the Harvard campus in unprecedented ways during the fall term to engage with the emergency as well as the long term problems of the country. The Harvard Pakistan Student Group has been able to partner with the HLS Law and International Development Society who were working on putting together their symposium, ‘Rebuilding After the Storm: The Role of Law in Post-Natural Disaster Development’ by arranging for Professor Amartya Sen to be the Keynote speaker at the event. I have been able to work as part of the small team that developed the key briefing document for Professor Sen on the flooding situation. In the lead-up to the symposium, I have been part of the team that has staffed an awareness table at the Hark that has sold wristbands and ribbons for the Harvard Students for Pakistan Campaign that aims to sign-up 5,000 people who have donated $1 or more to flood relief. As part of the broader community outreach to engage in dialogue on the longer term challenges that Pakistan faces, the Center for Middle East Studies recently arranged for me to speak to a class at Brookline High School on global conflict. I felt very privileged to be able to engage with high school students on some of the serious challenges facing Pakistan and was especially delighted to be able to share some Pakistani music. I hope to continue my work on raising awareness on these and other issues, and engaging with Harvard as well as the broader community during the remainder of the academic year and beyond.”
Hakim Lakhdar, Program Manager, Program on the Legal Profession
“In September, I was asked to speak with HLS students, faculty and staff about the American Bar Association and its Rule of Law Initiative. In 1990, the ABA established the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI), which in 2007 grew into the consolidated Rule of Law Initiative (ROLI), to aid in the legal reform efforts in newly independent republics and emerging democracies. I used the example of my own work in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to explain the various projects and approaches ABA ROLI implements and adopts while also addressing and highlighting the many challenges and obstacles they have faced since their inception. Programs, activities and strategies can be modified from year to year and country to country but those of us working in international development must always remember that ever-changing global relationships and countries’ national interests will always play a large role in the success we have in establishing a legitimate rule of law culture in emerging economies.”
Kerala Cowart (JD ’11), spending the summer working for the Human Rights Law Network in India as a 2010 Chayes Fellow
“I just returned from a trip to the Himalaya Indian/Tibet border region, where the Himachal Pradesh state government plans to build an enormous hydropower project on tribal lands. I am drafting the appeal of the Environmental Impact Assessment conducted for that project.”