Students traveled to four US cities and nine foreign countries over spring break through the International Immersion Program, the International Human Rights Clinic, and Spring Break of Service. Here, all three International Immersion Program (IIP) groups are shown.

One IIP group (shown above, in France) traveled to France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. In Strasbourg, France, the students visited the Council of Europe, where they admired art gifted to the council by member states and met with Gianluca Esposito, executive secretary of the Council of Europe.

In Strasbourg, they also met with Ireneusz Kondak (center), legal secretary, Registry of the European Court of Human Rights.

In Paris, students attended a conference on immigration and human rights at the University of Chicago Center in Paris. Professors Tom Ginsburg, Aziz Huq, and Claudia Flores (right, shown with Lecturer Moran Sadeh) presented at the conference.

While in Paris, Ginsburg and Huq (shown with host Professor Laurence Burgorgue-Larsen) visited the Sorbonne to answer questions about their book, How to Save a Constitutional Democracy.

In Luxembourg, students met with Michael Loizou (back row, center), legal counsel at the European Investment Bank.

Another group visited Hungary and the Czech Republic. Here, they are shown at the Hungarian Supreme Court.

While there, they met with Judge Kovács András of the Hungarian Supreme Court.

Students also visited the Constitutional Court of Hungary, where they listened to a presentation on the court’s structure and past cases.

In Prague, they visited the US Embassy and met with Commercial Counselor Christina Sharkey.

They also visited the law offices of Giese and Partners, where they discussed Czech politics and investment and banking laws.

The third IIP group visited Morocco and Tunisia. Here, they are shown in Morocco with the mayor of Fez, Idriss Azami Al Idrissi.

They also saw the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco.

Here, they are shown at the Constitutional Court in Morocco.

In Tunisia, they met with President Beji Caid Essebsi.

Students also met with the former president of Tunisia, Moncef Marzouki.

Students talked with Fadhel Mahfoudh, former president of the Tunisian Bar Association and a leader of the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, which won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize.

Through the student-run organization Spring Break of Service, 46 students volunteered at different public interest law offices in the United States--20 to New Orleans, eight to St. Louis, eight to Nashville, and 10 to Knoxville, Tennessee. The St. Louis group (shown here) worked at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, which helps low-income individuals in the St. Louis metropolitan area with a plethora of legal issues.

Students who visited New Orleans worked at the Orleans Public Defenders, which represents defendants in criminal and juvenile proceedings, or the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, a non-profit organization that represents indigent defendants charged with capital crimes.

In Knoxville, students worked at the Knox County Public Defender's Community Law Office.

Students who visited Nashville worked at the ACLU of Tennessee or the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence.

Four students from the International Human Rights Clinic traveled to Cambodia as part of the project examining international surrogacy and women's rights, and two traveled to South Africa to examine the right to education and access to the Internet. Above: a classroom in South Africa.

In Cambodia, students (including Alexa Rollins, '20, and Marie Umbach, LLM, '19, shown above) interviewed government officials, NGO and UN workers, and others.

In South Africa, students met with principals, teachers, and students at nine schools. Here, Faith Laken, '20, (second from left) and Clinic Fellow Nino Guruli (second from right) are shown with Avani Sign, director of Alt Advisory, their partner in South Africa; Mukweuho Muhangwi Sylvia, principal of Humbelani Secondary School; and Brynne Guthrie, a fellow at Alt Advisory, among others.

Above: one of the schools students visited in South Africa. Clinic students from both trips now are working on their final reports, drawing both on desk research done earlier in the academic year and on observations and interviews conducted on their trips.

Students traveled across the country and around the world over spring break to engage with the law through the International Immersion Program, Spring Break of Service, and the International Human Rights Clinic. 

Three groups of students participated in the International Immersion Program, which offers Law School students a chance to learn about international and comparative law through seminars with legal scholars, meetings with professionals at law firms, businesses, international organizations, government institutions, and exchanges with alumni and local law students. This year, one group visited France, Belgium, and Luxembourg; another went to Hungary and the Czech Republic; and a third visited Tunisia and Morocco. (To learn more, read one student's first-person account of her IIP trip to Russia in 2017).

Spring Break of Service groups worked at the Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office in Knoxville; the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence in and the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee in Nashville; the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center and Orleans Public Defenders in New Orleans, and at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri in St. Louis. (To learn more, read about this unexpected Spring Break of Service experience.)

International Human Rights Clinic students--accompanied by Professor Claudia Flores, director of the International Human Rights Clinic--traveled to Cambodia as part of the project examining international surrogacy and women's rights. Another traveled to South Africa--accompanied by Lecturer Nino Guruli, the clinic's fellow--to examine the right to education and access to the Internet. (To learn more, read this feature on the clinic and its global work).