Opportunities for Law Students

The Rapoport Center facilitates judicial internship placements for Texas Law students with international courts and tribunals, including the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Students may receive funding or academic credit for these internships.

The Rapoport Center offers summer funding and placement assistance to Texas Law students interested in doing transnational or international work on issues of human rights or social justice.

Fellowships are available for law and graduate students to work at the Rapoport Center over the summer and help with projects, publications, events, and research. Summer fellows advance the Center's mission and ensure that Center projects reflect and incorporate the diverse perspectives and expertise of a multidisciplinary UT academic community.

As promising leaders in the human rights field, Human Rights Scholars play a vital role in the daily life and future of the Rapoport Center. These students have a strong background in and commitment to international human rights and justice. Scholars will have the opportunity to participate in collaborative research on human rights topics and to work closely with the Rapoport Center's programs and planning over the course of the academic year.

The Charles Moyer Human Rights Fellowship honors the life and work of Charles Moyer, whose professional career has been devoted to the international protection of human rights, and who was the first Secretary of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

We invite UT graduate students from all disciplines whose research pertains to human rights and/or social justice to be part of our exciting graduate student affiliate program.

This fellowship honors indigenous Honduran activist Berta Cáceres and is open to law and non-law graduate students at UT with interests in indigenous rights and/or environmental justice.

The Rapoport Center invites UT law and graduate students to serve on the editorial committee for its Working Paper Series (WPS). The WPS is dedicated to interdisciplinary and critical dialogue about international human rights law and discourse.

Students in the Civil Rights Clinic, which was established through the Rapoport Center, represent low-income clients in a range of civil rights matters relating to abusive law enforcement practices, prisoners’ rights, discrimination in many forms, and freedoms of speech, religion, and association.

This list of human rights organizations, while by no means comprehensive, can be used as a starting point for students to search for opportunities around the world. Organizations where former Rapoport Center Fellows have worked are marked.

Students in the Transnational Worker Rights Clinic, which was established through the Rapoport Center, represent low-income transnational migrant workers in cases to recover unpaid wages, and also engage in advocacy projects asserting the rights of workers in here and abroad.

As part of a five-year project exploring the relationship between economic inequality and human rights, the Rapoport Center is offering summer fellowships in 2020 for UT law students to intern with organizations, globally and locally, working on issues of human rights and inequality— particularly (but not limited to) the areas of economic justice, labor, and natural resource governance.

Students in the Immigration Clinic gain hands-on experience representing vulnerable low-income immigrants from all over the world before the immigration and federal courts and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The University of Texas School of Law offers a number of courses and clinics throughout the year in the area of human rights.

The Human Rights Law Society (HRLS) is a student organization that aims to encourage and facilitate discussion around human rights issues at Texas Law.

This interdisciplinary writing competition on international human rights and gender awards a $1000 prize. It honors the work of Audre Rapoport, who advocated for women in the United States and internationally, particularly on issues of reproductive health.

The Human Rights Clinic, established through the Rapoport Center, brings together an interdisciplinary group of law and graduate students in a course that incorporates both classroom study and hands-on participation in human rights projects and cases.

The Rapoport Center is currently soliciting papers for its Working Paper Series (WPS). We encourage submissions from scholars of all disciplines as well as from activists and advocates. At present, we are particularly interested in papers that explore the relationship between labor, inequality, and human rights, in line with the Rapoport Center’s current thematic focus, but are also open to publishing papers on the topic of human rights more generally.

The Rapoport Center sponsors collaborative working groups initiated by our affiliated faculty that research and explore various human rights topics. These groups are comprised of faculty and students from diverse disciplines across campus. We invite you to join a working group and become part of the conversation!

This innovative concentration provides students with a robust, critical, and comparative foundation in both human rights and constitutional law. It offers students a comprehensive understanding of contemporary human rights practices, including uses of constitutional law, in both domestic and international settings.

NYU's Center for Human Rights & Global Justice maintains a page for job postings and similar opportunities in the human rights field that may be of interest to current students as well as postgraduates.