Four students got firsthand experience and insights about the interactions between international and domestic law through clinics completed during the spring in Mexico and Namibia.

Rising 3L Kate Brown helped protect the rights of Mexican guest workers in the U.S. through her co-op placement with Centro de los Derechos Del Migrantes in Mexico City.

In one project, Brown played the lead role in settling a complaint against an American forestry company that had underpaid workers.

“It was cheaper for the company to reach a settlement than comply with the law,” Brown said, adding that the talks convened via Skype were her first experience with such negotiations. 

Brown also helped protect workers hired by carnival operators who are exempt from fair labor standards because of the seasonal nature of the work and by working on a report that explains and promotes proposed rules that would apply to U.S. companies interested in recruiting high and low-wage guest workers.

Meanwhile, rising 3L Calandra Hersrud and Class of 2012 members Giselle Aloi and Mike Zettlemoyer worked on a range of projects in Namibia with the Legal Assistance Center and the Namibian Paralegal Association. 

Still affected by remnants of Roman Dutch and apartheid law that pre-date the country’s 1990 independence from South Africa and struggling with severe inequality in wealth, Namibia provided a rich laboratory for studying democracy at a very basic level, the students found.

“Much of the country can’t access legal services,” Zettlemoyer said.

Hersrud helped the LAC prepare a lawsuit on behalf of tribes displaced from their ancestral lands, located on Africa’s leading game preserve.  Yet the fate of the tribes remains hazy, she said, since the case will be filed in domestic courts but turns on international law. 

With many communities lacking running water and sanitation, Zettlemoyer and Aloi helped lead workshops for community leaders focused on identifying and advocating for these resources as human rights.  He and Hersrud also wrote grant applications on behalf of a community activist who has fought forced sterilizations of women and is opening vocational schools.

Aloi helped develop a report on living conditions in some communities and combed international, Namibian and South African law to craft arguments for the nation’s first case to establish the right to water.

“The country’s so young, there’s still a lot of optimism,” Hersrud said, adding that she was fascinated by the interplay between treaties, international and domestic law.

Brown drew inspiration from the power of a small organization to affect policy and said she was thrilled that the law school arranged to offer the placements through a partnership with the University of Maryland School of Law.

“We’re thankful to Drexel for this opportunity,” Brown said.  “It was amazing.  This is really cutting-edge stuff”