UCL PIL Pro Bono Project submits amicus brief to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

The brief regards written legal observations on an advisory opinion request submitted by Ecuador asking the IACtHR to issue an opinion on the institution of asylum in international law. After an intense period of research, a group of LLM and PhD students at UCL Laws drafted and submitted a brief suggesting that the IACtHR should reformulate the request submitted by Ecuador based on jurisdictional and admissibility grounds and instead issue an opinion addressing the obligations of OAS member states vis-à-vis asylum-seekers under their jurisdiction.

The UCL PIL Pro Bono Project, which operates under the umbrella of the UCL Centre for Access to Justice, brings together LLM and PhD students with a background in Public International Law and provides them with opportunities to gain research experience while contributing to a common good. One of the aims of the Project is for students at UCL to engage with international human rights systems through drafting amicus curiae submissions to international courts and undertaking legal research for non-governmental organisations that support and represent victims of human rights abuses.

The following UCL PIL Pro Bono Project members contributed in the research and drafting process of this brief:

• Luis Felipe Viveros Montoya, UCL PIL Pro Bono Project’s Coordinator, PhD candidate at UCL Laws and Editor of the UCL Journal of Law and Jurisprudence
• Alexandra Van Walraven, LLM candidate at UCL Laws
• Piergiuseppe Parisi, PhD Candidate at the School of International Studies, University of Trento; Visiting PhD at UCL Laws
• Julia Calderón Carcedo, LLM candidate at UCL Laws
• Frania Colmenero, LLM candidate at UCL Laws
• William Lane, LLM candidate at UCL Laws
• Shaun Van Eeden, LLM candidate at UCL Laws

Read more about the UCL PIL Pro Bono Project.

Email Luis Felipe Viveros Montoya (luis.montoya.14@ucl.ac.uk) to find out more.