International Humanitarian Law Clinic


The International Humanitarian Law Clinic offers students the opportunity to do cutting-edge work promoting adherence to and enforcement of international humanitarian law.

International humanitarian law governs the conduct of countries and individuals during armed conflict. It includes the Geneva Conventions and other conventional and customary law. Our focus in the IHL Clinic is on war, conflict and atrocities—genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture.

Protecting civilians in conflict areas, preventing atrocities and holding perpetrators of atrocities accountable is an endless task. The IHL Clinic plays a key role in this fight. Students in the clinic do real-world work for international criminal tribunals and human rights organizations in real time. They help prosecute or defend individuals accused of war crimes, raise public awareness of atrocities and ensure the protection of civilians and combatants in conflict regions around the world.

Our students are on the front lines—representing detainees, working with international tribunals, researching ways to hold perpetrators accountable—and the tribunals, organizations and law firms we work with get the help they need. The students gain valuable experience in the specialized field of international humanitarian law and engage in complex legal research and writing to bring together theory and practice in innovative solutions to cutting-edge problems.

For example, IHL Clinic students have researched and prepared:

  • an amicus brief for a Supreme Court case addressing the obligation to not transfer a detainee to a country where he will be tortured;
  • a third-party submission to the European Court of Human Rights on the use of evidence obtained through torture;
  • a memorandum on the status of specific crimes under the laws of war;
  • country papers for a worldwide Amnesty International project on the use of universal jurisdiction to try perpetrators of atrocities;
  • a chapter in the Special Court for Sierra Leone's best practices report;
  • a submission to the Special Rapporteur for Torture addressing claims of aiding and abetting torture through the sale of surveillance equipment to Iran;
  • briefs and motions on a range of issues in cases involving detainees at Guantanamo Bay;
  • advocacy documents to aid in negotiations for the release of one or more detainees; and
  • portions of the upcoming second edition of a resource manual on law of war training for militaries worldwide.

Acting Director Laurie Blank provides classroom instruction and supervises the students' work as they gain firsthand experience on critical issues of our time and lay the foundation for meaningful work in international humanitarian law or related fields upon graduation.