SAN DIEGO -- Thomas Jefferson School of Law student
Michael Lee has been selected for a prestigious internship with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) based in The Hague, Netherlands. Lee, who is scheduled to graduate in August of 2006, begins his six-month internship in March of 2007.

“It is an incredible opportunity,” said Lee, who added: “While at Thomas Jefferson I have been working toward a career in international human rights law.”

Lee will be interning in The Office of the President, Judge Fausto Pocar, who is the Chief Judge of the Tribunal. Most of Lee’s work will center on doing legal research and writing briefs for the court. Judge Focar was a featured speaker at Thomas Jefferson School of Law’s January 2005 conference, “Law and the Humanities’ Representation of the Holocaust, Genocide and Other Human Rights Violations.”

“It is a great honor that Michael Lee has been chosen to intern at this tribunal, where cutting-edge issues of international law are being litigated,” said Thomas Jefferson School of Law Professor Marjorie Cohn.

Cohn was Lee’s faculty advisor for the Thomas Jefferson Moot Court team, which recently won the prize for Best Memorial for the State in English at the Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court Competition in Washington, D.C. Lee, along with TJSL student Christie Edwards, co-authored the winning memorial.

“Michael is committed to the protection of human rights, which will be the focus of his law practice,” Cohn added.

The ICTY was created by the United Nations in 1993 as a place to try those charged with serious violations of international humanitarian law during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, including genocide and other crimes against humanity. The majority of the prosecutions arise from the Bosnian war as well as the Kosovo conflict. According to the ICTY’s official web site: “Through its work, by holding senior individuals responsible for the crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, the Tribunal is bringing a sense of justice to the many thousands of victims across the region.”

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