The Certificate program will provide students with the basic skills necessary to participate in constitutional design projects. Specialized training will prepare students to predict the consequences of various constitutional choices, to understand the choices open to constitutional designers on a range of subjects, and to use constitutional history and traditions to tailor constitutional provisions to a specific country’s needs. This skill set is highly valued by employers in this field.
Certificate in Rule of Law and Constitutional Design
Goals
- Basic grounding in the legal foundations of democracy
- Understanding of the choices open to constitutional designers on a range of subjects, such as electoral systems, styles of federalism, human rights, promotion of gender equality, and approaches to civil/military relations
- The ability to use constitutional history, traditions, politics, and social relations of a country to tailor constitutional provisions to that country’s needs
- The ability to predict the consequences of various constitutional choices
Admissions
The certificate is intended for students with or without prior legal training. It is intended to serve two categories of students: (1) students already at IUB who wish to add the certificate to an existing degree program and (2) mid-career individuals in positions in law and government as well as NGO, nonprofit and military sectors who have discovered a need for expertise in rule of law and constitutional design.
This certificate program will allow students who are unable to devote a full year to their studies to gain a basic introduction to constitutional design. This opportunity will be particularly useful for unconventional students, such as political actors currently engaged in a constitutional reform process in another country.
Applicants must have either earned an undergraduate degree or, in the case of students already enrolled at IUB, they must have completed all of the course requirements for an undergraduate degree.
Applicants will be assessed based on work experience, experience in law reform and constitutional processes, and evidence of academic ability.
Credits and Program Structure
The Certificate in Rule of Law and Constitutional Design will require a total of 12 credit hours and one semester in residence at IU.
Required courses: (6 credit hours of core courses, 6 credits of electives)
Seminar in Constitutional Design 1: Multiethnic Societies (3 cr)
Seminar in Constitutional Design 2: Rights, Equality & States of Emergency (3 cr)
Elective Courses
Students may take 6 credit hours of elective courses from the list below:
- Constitutional Law (Williams)
- Constitutional Law II (Williams/Johnsen/Conkle)
- Law and Development (Ochoa)
- Seminar: Commerce and Human Rights (Ochoa)
- Processes of Post-Conflict Justice (Istrabadi)
- International Law (Ochoa/Waters)
- Human Rights Law (Waters)
- International Criminal Law (Waters)
- Native American Law (Williams)
- Seminar: Counterinsurgency and Rule of Law Operations (Fidler)
- Seminar: Feminist Readings of Islamic Texts (Istrabadi)
- Seminar: Role of Law in Complex Operations (Fidler)
- Seminar: Islamic Law (Waters)
- Seminar in Constitutional Process (Williams)
- Seminar in Comparative Inequality (Brown)
- Seminar in Comparative Law: Constitutional Monarchy (Williams)
- Constitutional Design and the Economy (Williams)
*Constitutional Law 1 only counts as an elective for non-JD students
