The Center for Constitutional Democracy provides several unpaid positions each year for law students to conduct research and carry out projects relating to the Center’s constitutional advising work. The research may include work on human rights, electoral quotas, presidentialism, legal history, state versus customary law, and other topics.
Students must submit applications to be considered for fellow positions. Applications open every spring on April 1 and close on April 15 at 11:59 p.m. If accepted, the student fellows will actively engage in Center life by serving on a research team, completing an editorial project, performing supervised editorial review duties for the CCD’s journal (the Indiana Journal of Constitutional Design), and attending CCD meetings, speaker seminars, and events. Fellows will receive one academic credit per semester for their work; the time commitment is up to ten hours per week and student affiliates are expected to maintain involvement in the CCD for the duration of their second and third years of law school.
As CCD fellows, students will be given hands-on experience with the legal research necessary for democracy promotion and constitutional design in new and struggling democracies. Each fellow will produce a substantial research project on an important topic in the growing field of constitutional design. Students present their research at a Symposium held in the spring of each year and several projects are chosen for publication in our on-line journal: The Indiana Journal of Constitutional Design. For a description of the most recent set of student research projects, please see the agenda for last spring’s Symposium. We have funding to allow some JD fellows to travel with us to the countries we advise. Such work is a rare opportunity to be involved with reformers around the world and will be a valuable addition to resumés for students interested in careers in democracy promotion.
