Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall

Brynn Felix (’18) discusses her summer internship with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the BU Law Student Blog.

What a whirlwind journey this summer was! I spent the first half interning in Strasbourg, a picturesque city in France’s Alsace region and a stone’s throw away from Germany.

The latter half of my summer was devoted to applying for 2L summer positions in Washington State, where I intend to return after law school. This post will chronicle my internship experience, while the next blog post will cover (and hopefully demystify) the process of interviewing for 2L summer positions. Here we go!

Part I – The Internship

Within 24 hours of finishing my last final, I hit the skies and headed to Strasbourg to begin my internship at the Council of Europe, a regional organization that pre-dates the European Union and whose mission is to promote democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in Europe. Perhaps its most renowned institution is the European Court of Human Rights, which oversees the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights. Thanks to a bilateral agreement between BU Law and the Council of Europe, I spent my summer working for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Council’s deliberative body. PACE does not create binding law, but rather functions as a forum for inter-parliamentary dialogue between the Council’s 47 member states.

Within PACE, I interned with the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, where I worked on issues ranging from monitoring judicial and electoral reform in Partnership for Democracy States to evaluating member states’ international treaty obligations. Some days I researched adherence to Venice Commission commitments, while on others I tracked the latest developments in regional diplomatic negotiations. I couldn’t have arrived at a busier time, as the Brexit referendum vote fell on the last day of our June plenary session. Brexit’s shadow cast a pall over the weeklong session, which was already fraught with tension over the ongoing migration crisis and the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. I had the opportunity to attend addresses by the Greek and Estonian Prime Ministers and to see PACE in action as it debated topics such as the influx of Syrian refugees into Europe and combating human trafficking.

I could not have wished for a more fascinating and dynamic internship experience! In addition to observing and contributing research to rapidly evolving diplomatic situations, I relished the invaluable opportunity to work alongside nationals from every member state and to listen to a myriad of perspectives on regional politics. I highly recommend this experience to anyone who is interested in learning more about international law, diplomacy, and the intersectionality between global and regional politics.

With my 1L summer behind me, it was time to return to Boston – this time with my cat and spouse in tow. I’m super excited about what this year will bring! Fall classes start tomorrow: I’m taking Evidence, a seminar on Juvenile Delinquency, and a Legislative Policy and Drafting Clinic.