Sara Mansour Fallah, LLM Class of 2018, was selected to participate in the Judicial Fellows Programme with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which allows recent law graduates to experience working as a law clerk for a judge of the ICJ. She will be awarded the Weaver ICJ Fellowship, which provides recognition and support for a GW Law student selected for the Programme. Ms. Mansour Fallah recently shared with GW Law her journey to obtain the clerkship, and what she looks forward to in this next chapter of her career.
Prior to GW Law, Ms. Mansour Fallah received her first law degree from the University of Vienna in Austria. During her law studies there, she specialized in public international law, competing in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition and working as a research assistant to international law professors. After graduation, she clerked at an Austrian court. She soon realized that she wanted to go back to public international law and, after her clerkship, spent over a year working at the Section for International Law at the Faculty of Law in Vienna. Ms. Mansour Fallah gained experience teaching and writing in the field and has published articles. She is currently working on her PhD and is researching her dissertation in the field of international investment law. Ms. Mansour Fallah came to GW Law on a Fulbright Scholarship and specializes in International and Comparative Law. Of her decision to attend GW Law, she said: "I know that it is a real asset to any practitioner or scholar of international law to have studied outside of your home country, and an LLM at GW Law provided the perfect opportunity to do so due to the school's strength in international law."
GW Law is among a select group of law schools that is invited to nominate candidates for the prestigious ICJ Judicial Fellows Programme. The court looks for candidates "who have excellent results in their law studies and who have demonstrated an interest in international law through their studies, publications or work experience." Ms. Mansour Fallah was one of two candidates nominated by the faculty this year, chosen based on her academic and professional background in international law, abilities in English and French (the working languages of the Court), and performance at GW Law. Nominees are required to prepare a comprehensive application, which the law school forwards to the ICJ for consideration. The Court selects approximately 15 Judicial Fellows per year from a pool of candidates nominated by top institutions around the world. Each Judicial Fellow is assigned to a particular judge and Ms. Mansour Fallah will serve Judge Abdulqawi Yusuf, President of the ICJ.
Ms. Mansour Fallah was contacted directly by the Court in late March and she was “thrilled” to learn that she had been chosen. "Being selected as an ICJ clerk is an immense honor to me and working at the Peace Palace is certainly one of the most valuable experiences one can gain in the field," she said. Ms. Mansour Fallah also expressed gratitude to GW Law for making this opportunity possible. She added: "I am lucky to have had a great number of people supporting me in this process and I thank my professors at GW Law and in Vienna for their encouragement."
The role of a clerk at the ICJ consists of researching specific questions of international law relating to current proceedings before the court, as well as preparing case files and documents. “I look forward to experiencing judicial settlement of international disputes first-hand, and to engaging and learning from Judge Yusuf and all the other inspiring individuals serving at the Court as judges, clerks, and staff," Ms. Mansour Fallah said.
The clerkship will start in September 2018 and will run until July 2019.