26 August 2008
My name is Dylan Marvin and I am a 3L at TJSL. Right now, however, I have temporarily left the sunny state of California and relocated to Freetown, Sierra Leone (which is equally sunny, infinitely more humid and chock-full of malaria). I am working in Trial Chamber 1 of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) for the fall semester. We are working on the judgment in the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) case.
TJSL has asked me to maintain a blog outlining my experiences surrounding this internship. A recent TJSL grad, Jovana Ostojic, is also here and is keeping a blog as well. Thus, for the sake of anybody who has read Jovana's writings, I will attempt to refrain from covering information she may have already discussed. Unless of course there is a funny story I can thanklesssly steal from her blog and take credit for. For my first entry, I am going to explain how I obtained this internship, as well as how I physically made my way to Freetown. Please also bear in mind my version of Microsoft word is programmed to spell-check the Queen's English so forgive me if my spelling appears strange.
I was lucky enough to figure out early on in law school that I wanted to pursue a career in international law. Specifically, I am interested in international criminal law and international human rights. I spent countless hours googling internship opportunities and speaking with the career counsellors at school (Thanks Beverly!). Eventually, I started applying for internships all over the world.
I discovered quickly, much to my surprise, there were ample opportunities for internships. Let me rephrase that. There are lots of internships available if one is willing to travel all over the world. But, hey, why do international law if you don't want to travel?
I applied for internships in London, Paris, Phnom Penh, Nairobi, The Hague, Amsterdam, Arusha, New York and Washington D.C. Apparently, I was having a tough time getting my dedication and commitment through to these internship offices! This is one the realities of the field I quickly learned; jobs are competitive and the international legal community is quite small. Luckily for me, Jovana was working at the Special Court and a mutual professor placed us in contact. The SCSL happened to need an intern, Jovana happened to know an aspiring intern, and I applied for the position. One thing led to another and eventually I was in a nurse's offices getting vaccines for diseases I did not even know existed.
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