UCL Public International Law Pro Bono Project
This project brings together LLM and PhD students with a background in international law and provides them with opportunities to get first hand practical experience in public international law
The UCL PIL Pro Bono Project will be taking a brief hiatus in this 2025-26 academic year, to account for the Faculty commitments of its co-Directors.
Students who may have been interested in participating should consider applying to participate in this year’s international law mooting teams, or should explore the pro bono opportunities provided through our award winning Centre for Access to Justice. On the mooting front, we will be calling for applicants for the Jessup team (as reigning UK national champions, we are looking to go from strength to strength) and our fantastic Viz team – each of which have Faculty Advisors and wonderful PIL Faculty support!
The UCL Public International Law Pro Bono Project brings together highly motivated LLM and PhD students with a background in relevant subject areas, and provides them with opportunities to engage in cutting edge legal research, analysis and advice to assist leading international organisations in addressing some of the world’s most pressing and difficult challenges. The Project was established with two main objectives in mind. First, we aim to provide our LLM and PhD students with the opportunity to work both individually and collaboratively on issues of major practical and international importance. This helps our international law students to develop the skills necessary for them to thrive in their future careers, whether this takes them into the world of legal practice, academic research, or policy making. Second, by tapping into the expertise, skills and enthusiasm of our student body, the PILPBP is a means through which UCL can make an important and enduring contribution to respect for human rights around the world.
The UCL Public International Law Pro Bono Project has been honoured with a Provost’s Education Award. The highly regarded award recognises and rewards UCL activities which make outstanding contributions to the learning experience and success of their students.
LLM students on the Project work in close collaboration with the PhD Co-ordinators and the Directors of the Project. This collaboration across LLM and PhD students, under the direction of UCL Laws academic staff, is an integral part of achieving the twin objectives of the PILPBP.
In 2024-25, the Project will be focusing on an application before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). In particular, in collaboration with lead counsel, the PILPBP has been representing a UK victim of human rights abuse before the IACHR against the state of Colombia, and the application was declared admissible by the Commission in June. The IACHR has imposed a deadline of 26 December 2024 for the submission of the memorial on the merits of the case. The Project will be supporting lead counsel in the preparation of the memorial on the merits, conducting research and drafting elements of the application (subject to close supervision). Further information on the particular nature of this case is available in the LLM Induction Handbook.
Information on the application process is set out below, and further guidance on the way the Project will work this year will be provided in due course to those selected.
PIL Pro Bono Partners
The PIL Pro Bono Project partners with different organisations each year – the following is a sample of partnerships from previous years.
The Project has a co-operation agreement with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), by way of which students may be asked to provide the Court with high quality research on legal questions raised in cases as they are being litigated. The Project also participates in the Inter-American human rights system by contributing amicus briefs in respect of requests to the Court for an Advisory Opinion. The PILPBP has submitted several amicus briefs to the Court on various human rights issues, and has participated in the oral phase of proceedings in each case, giving a number of LLM students the opportunity to appear before the Court.
The Project also regularly carries out research for Redress and has contributed to a number of important projects, including Redress’ submission to the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ Inquiry into the Human Rights Act (‘20 years of the Human Rights Act inquiry’), its work on the joint civil society shadow report on the UK submitted to the UN Committee against Torture, and a strategic litigation Casebook to be used in training human rights lawyers the world over.
The PILPBP has worked on a legal / policy paper for Geneva Call in respect of non-international armed conflicts (‘NIACs’) – work which will help shape Geneva Call’s engagement with non-state actors in NIACS with a view to encouraging compliance with international humanitarian law. The PIL Pro Bono Project has also prepared an IHL in Action case study for the ICRC; has prepared a memo for the Executive of the World Refugee Council (a non-governmental organisation established by leading global policy makers, including a Nobel Peace Prize winner), setting out innovative ways of unlocking the frozen assets of refugee-creating regimes, with a view to responding to the global refugee crisis; and has assisted the Syrian Legal Development Programme with its important work, including through a ‘scoping’ exercise analysing the extent to which various States have a legal and political environment which is receptive to refugee concerns.
The organisations which the Project collaborates with may change over time – but the Project will always be engaging in high level research with human rights and humanitarian impact!
Direction of the Project
The Project is co-directed by Professors Kimberley Trapp and Alex Mills. The PhD Project Co-ordinators for 2024-25 will be confirmed in due course.
Student Roles
UCL LLM students go through a very competitive application process in order to participate in the PIL Pro Bono Project. While there are no formal ‘pre-requisites’ for participation as such, having studied Public International Law and / or Human Rights Law at undergraduate level can offer a competitive advantage. As participation in the PILPBP is intended to support experiential learning, successful applicants are invariably studying several modules on the Public International Law and / or Human Rights Law specialisms at UCL Laws.
