International Court of Justice University Traineeship Fellowship

Stanford Law School partners with the International Court of Justice to offer our graduates the opportunity to participate in the 10-month Judicial Fellowship Programme. The judicial fellow works full-time with a Member of the Court and will gain a deep understanding of public international law in practice. The program begins every fall in September.

Stanford Law School will provide funding to successful applicants equivalent to our internal public interest fellowships. Currently, the amount is $60,000.

All applicants must be nominated by their law school. A selection committee comprised of our faculty will make the decision about nominations. Applicants should be 31 years old or younger at the start of the fellowship, demonstrate an interest in public international law through their studies and experiences, and have fluency in either English or French (but ideally both).

Eva Keïta, LLM ’23, is the 2023-2024 ICJ University Traineeship Fellow. Claire Duval, LLM ’22, served as the 2022-2023 ICJ University Traineeship Fellow. Chris Bello, JD ’21, served as the 2021-2022 ICJ University Traineeship Fellow. Mohit Khubchandani, LLM ’18, served as the 2020-2021 ICJ University Traineeship Fellow. Camila Marino, LLM ’18, served as the 2018-2019 ICJ University Traineeship Fellow. Rina Kuusipalo, LLM ’17, was the 2017-2018 ICJ University Traineeship Fellow.

Please contact Kevin Lo if you are interested in applying. The call for applications is typically released in early November of the previous year. The internal SLS program deadline is January 19, 2024.

Applicants must submit items 2-5 directly to Melanie Stone by the internal deadline:
1. A formal letter from the university confirming that it accepts responsibility for funding the stipend, health insurance, and travel costs of the nominated candidate, if selected.
2. ICJ personal history form and summary-table.
3. Two or three letters of reference.
4. Official academic record of the candidate.
5. A writing sample of no more than 15 pages (preferably on a public international law topic).

If you are nominated, you will be informed via email and our nomination committee will issue the formal letter referred to in item 1. Candidates are strongly encouraged to fill in the application form as comprehensively as possible. The summary table should be limited to one page and should highlight the most relevant and important information, which candidates may present in list form.