Leitner Programs

The two-week program will provide students with a comprehensive introduction to the theory and application of human rights law, and will include practice-based examples for lawyers and other professionals working in a range of fields. The course will be taught by professors from Fordham Law School, and will be a rigorous program with daily lectures and workshops.

Through real-world human rights lawyering experiences, the Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic trains Fordham Law School students to be strategic, reflective, and creative social justice advocates.  The Clinic works in partnership and solidarity with grassroots justice organizations on human rights projects in three focus areas: sexual rights, access to justice, and health and human rights.  The Clinic employs a range of advocacy methods including legal and policy analysis, human rights trainings, public interest litigation, submissions before human rights bodies, and direct legal assistance.

The Vivian Leitner Global South LL.M. Scholars Program aims to enable graduate students from the developing world to enroll in Fordham’s Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Law and Justice. Each year, a distinguished committee selects up to four of the most highly qualified students from the global south for this prestigious Program.

Efforts to advance corporate social responsibility are vital to the Leitner Center’s mission to promote social justice around the world. Corporations have a key role to play in the development and evolution of this important area of law. To this end, the Leitner Center has developed several projects to explore the challenges and opportunities present for maximizing social and environmental impacts alongside profits.

Unique among American law schools, the Crowley Program’s Annual Human Rights Fact-Finding Project provides law students with the opportunity to participate in an overseas human rights investigation and prepares them for a career in international human rights.

The Sustainable Development Legal Initiative (SDLI), directed by Professor Paolo Galizzi, serves as a focal point within the Leitner Center and Fordham Law School for activities in the field of international sustainable development. Through its expertise in international law, legal education, research and practice, SDLI aims to promote the use of law to foster environmentally sound development and poverty eradication.

Exposing students to the realities and challenges of development work
through hands-on projects in partnership with African law students

The International Law and the Constitution Initiative, directed by Professor Catherine Powell, explores the relationship between international law and constitutional law. The Initiative hosts public events and provides opportunities for students to work on law and policy projects.

The Asia Law and Justice (ALJ) Program exposes students to critical human rights concerns in Asia, a region that is vast, diverse, and facing a wide range of challenges to the rule of law and access to justice.

The Tolan Fellowship is a post-graduate Fellowship that will fund a Fordham Law School graduate to work for an international human rights organization for one year. The Fellowship is intended to allow Fordham Law School graduates with a demonstrated commitment to international human rights and an interest in working in the field to gain practical work experience with an international human rights non-governmental organization or inter-governmental organization.

In April 2005, the Leitner family pledged $2 million dollars to Fordham Law School to establish a chair in international human rights. The gift was the second largest non-bequeathed gift that the Law School has ever received.

The Leitner Center organizes human rights colloquia, which brings leading scholars of international law and political theory from around the world to discuss their current work with Fordham Law faculty and students throughout the semester.

The Leitner Center annually honors one of the activists with whom the Crowley Program worked during the prior year’s human rights fact-finding project with a $1000 prize. The Center flies the recipient to New York to attend the Annual Leitner Dinner and meetings with non-governmental organizations and national and international officials.

The Committee to Support Chinese Lawyers is comprised of lawyers outside China wishing to support lawyers in China in their quest-and the Chinese government’s own commitment-to establish the rule of law. The Committee’s mission is to (1) develop information about the situation of lawyers in China and track cases of individual lawyers who are the subjects of persecution or intimidation because of the clients or causes they represent …

Fordham Law School offers an LL.M. in International Law and Justice, during which lawyers gain an advanced understanding of human rights protection and promotion at the international, regional and domestic levels, from its historical evolution to the forefront of cutting-edge scholarship and debate. The LL.M. Program seeks to enroll international students, particularly from Asia, Africa and Latin America, in the hopes that the Program may contribute to diversity in the student-body and enrich classroom experiences for all Fordham Law School students.