Global Studies Partnership with CILE: Building Human Rights through International Legal Education
By Ronald Brand
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Dr. Ronald Brand |
Since Fall 2012, the Pitt Global Studies Center has supported seven full-time professional school students with Heinz Fellowships. Participating schools have included the Graduate School of Public Health, the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, the School of Law, and the School of Nursing. A key partner in that effort has been the Center for International Legal Education (CILE) and its Director, Professor Ronald Brand.
For fifteen years, the Center for International Legal Education (CILE) has offered a unique program for international legal education involving students, professors, lawyers, and judges in twenty countries. Participants have learned best practices in international commercial law and international arbitration, which strengthens the rule of law, economic systems, and human rights.
The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot competition exemplifies the successful work of CILE by bringing together professors and students from different countries to learn from one another. In April 2014, the 21st Vis Moot was held in Vienna, Austria, with student teams from nearly 300 law schools in more than 70 countries, mostly from the Middle East. Teams put together written and oral arguments that involved the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and the law of international arbitration. This educational platform developed by CILE has had wide repercussions influencing curricular changes in transition countries; training a new cadre of arbitration lawyers; and influencing how judges in transition countries view international arbitration awards and treaty obligations.
For Pitt Law students, CILE’s work offers unique professional development experiences. Pitt Law students who have competed in the Vis Moot in their second year of JD studies have the opportunity to travel with Professor Ronald Brand to assist him with training teams in the Middle East during their third year. Pitt Law students can also benefit from two courses that have resulted from CILE and the Vis Moot platform. One course, available for the first time in fall 2014, focuses on International Commercial Arbitration. This course uniquely offers a chance for foreign LLM students who have competed in the Vis Moot to help train other students as well as to teach courses in their home countries on International Commercial Arbitration.
People often ask Professor Brand why there is not more of a focus on international human rights in CILE's programs. This question implies a lack of interdependence between strong economic systems and human rights. The program created by CILE has been able to build partnerships across the globe in transitional areas like the Balkans and the Middle East, which has strengthened the legal systems in those countries through education and shared ideas. This strengthening of the rule of law is vital for these economies to stabilize and for these systems to be able to provide for the people’s rights and security as set forth in international norms.
In response to those who question the link between international commercial law and human rights, Professor Brand insists “No legal system can provide basic needs without a functioning economic system, and having lawyers who can help establish the framework for commercial exchange and for dispute resolution is fundamental. This process is at the very core of human rights. When you see intense discussions about non-threatening legal issues among students from Belgrade and students from Pristina, and among students from Kyiv and students from Donetsk, and when you see brilliant young women from a law school in Saudi Arabia holding their own with Vis Moot teams from the best law schools in the world, that is human rights.”