Who We Are
The Institute for Transnational Law is a research center at The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law). The Institute was reimagined and relaunched in 2017 to enhance and expand programs, resources, and events on international and comparative law at Texas Law. A reflection of Texas Law’s strength in the field, the Institute deepens a rich international and comparative law curriculum and enhances the intellectual life of Texas Law. The Institute also serves as a space where law students collaborate with faculty to produce innovative research on international and comparative law.
What We’re Fundraising For
The Institute for Transnational Law is fundraising for research fellowships for law students at Texas Law. The purpose of these research fellowships is to launch the international law careers of talented law students by improving access, affordability, and collaboration in legal education at Texas Law.
The research fellowship is a one-year program specifically designed to identify, cultivate, and promote promising law students early in their careers with a primary focus on international and comparative law. International and comparative law encompass familiar legal disciplines such as finance and criminal law, legal history and antitrust, among many others, even as they accentuate questions regarding both relations across national boundaries between states, entities and citizens and the transnational transmission of ideas about law. Research fellows have been selected from among current law students who are committed to pursuing publishable research likely to make a significant contribution to international and comparative law scholarship while helping defray the high costs of legal education today.
Research fellows devote 300 hours over the course of the year to scholarly activities in furtherance of their individual research agendas and the research agenda of the Institute. In addition, research fellows contribute to the intellectual life of the Institute and the Texas Law community through presenting their research in and attending law student workshops, helping to organize and participating in Institute events, and blogging.
Your Impact
"I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to experience firsthand how, through the support of the Institute for Transnational Law, the "guardians of liberty" have been educated in the U.S. Thank you for enabling me to develop my professional skills and knowledge of human rights law to the best of my capabilities for the benefit of a country like Georgia that is still in the process of consolidating its democracy."
-Anna Arganashvili, (LL.M. 2020)
"This fellowship is helping me to learn more about energy and mining finance and regulations from a global perspective and to improve my research skills. After graduation, my plan is to go back to Guinea and continue to practice law and teach natural resources law in public universities."
-Hamidou Dramé (LL.M. of 2020)
"Attending classes at The University of Texas School of Law has been a dream of mine for such a long time! I am a Ukrainian attorney whose main field of legal practice and public activity is energy law. Thank you for supporting international students. I hope one day to be able to help other students to achieve their dreams and career goals just as you have helped me."
-Viktoriia Ishchenko (LL.M. 2020)
"Being a Fulbright student from a developing country, I had to face numerous obstacles when I chose to attend the prestigious School of Law at The University of Texas at Austin. My educational endeavor would not have made its way to The University of Texas at Austin if not for the generous monetary support of the Institute for Transnational Law. I have been a passionate researcher since my undergraduate years, and I consider being awarded this prestigious research fellowship a valuable opportunity to develop my research interests and to help grow the Institute through my work. All the resources I currently have access to will benefit not only me but also the current state of legal education in Sri Lanka, which I am privileged to be a part of as an academic."
-Pamoda Jayasundara, (LL.M. 2020)
“I am from the Netherlands, and I am currently a LL.M. student with a focus on criminal law. I am planning on taking the Texas Bar Exam in July 2020 after graduating from the LL.M. Program as I want to be criminal defense attorney in Texas. This fellowship has given me the opportunity work on a research project on capital punishment while pursuing my LL.M. Had I not gotten this fellowship before the start of the academic year, I would not be studying at Texas Law right now because I did not have the financial resources to pay the entire cost of the LL.M. on my own. For me, this fellowship made the difference between staying in the Netherlands and performing work I was not passionate about and coming to the United States and pursuing my dream.”
-Merel Pontier, (LL.M. 2020)
"I am a lawyer from India, and it has been a long-standing dream of mine to study in the United States. This dream has been possible because of the generous contribution made by the Institute for Transnational Law in addition to the Fulbright Scholarship that I have been granted by the U.S. government. I have worked on human rights issues in India, and I have taught law at the National Law University in Delhi and Jodhpur. My areas of interest include International human rights law, critical legal theory, and mental health law. The nine months at The University of Texas School of Law has been fantastic, and I am eagerly looking forward to the rest of my time here."
-Gowthaman Ranganathan (LL.M. 2020)
"I am a lawyer from Pakistan and have practiced for seven years before returning to university to pursue a LL.M. in Global Energy, International Arbitration, and Environmental Law. Over time, I realized the ill-effects of our burgeoning energy demand on our environment and how energy sources have primarily contributed towards significant carbon emission. This has manifested in me focusing on managing the clean energy transition. I am utilizing my research fellowship to review and analyze the carbon pricing mechanisms across multiple jurisdictions to access the role of law in decarbonization of our environment."
-Humzah Yazdani (LL.M. 2020)
