The LLM program — on the road and at home

Among the many topics to which I don’t give enough attention is the LLM program.  To correct this situation, I’ve asked Hyejin Park, the program’s interim director to provide some updates.  Hyejin is a 2012 graduate of the program, and she is covering for program director (and another graduate) Susan Simone, while Susan is on maternity leave.  Here’s Hyejin’s report on her trip last weekend to New York for an event.

I spent last weekend in New York City, escaping only a short time before Hurricane Sandy, for the annual International Law Weekend 2012, which the Fletcher School co-sponsored.  It was an intense two days of intellectually stimulating panels on public and private international law topics, with practitioners, academics, and students from across the East Coast in attendance – a fitting occasion for the Fletcher LLM Program to be represented.  One of the panels, entitled “Metatheory of International Law,” featured Fletcher’s very own Professor Joel Trachtman.

Now back in Medford, I am only beginning to realize what a whirlwind of two months the start of the academic year has been.  We welcomed 17 students from 13 different countries into the Fletcher LLM Class of 2013, including one MALD/LLM joint degree candidate.  As has been the case with the four preceding LLM alumni classes, the constituent members of the current LLM class bring with them an incredibly diverse range of life and work experience, and exhibit a deep engagement with international law.

Our High Table luncheon series is well underway, with talks thus far by the Hon. Robert Cordy, Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, and Stuart Kerr, Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at the Millennium Challenge Corporation.  In the spring semester, we will host, among others, Meg Kinnear, Secretary-General of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

The corridors of Fletcher these days tend to seem relatively calm and quiet on the surface.  I’d like to think it must have something to do with students being deeply immersed in their midterm assignments, ranging from papers on human rights law and trade law, to simulated negotiations on treaty law.  I look forward to being back on the blog soon with some more updates on the LLM Program.