THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE AND THE RULE OF LAW (IIJ) is hiring a Resident Fellow.
IIJ Background
Located on the beautiful, historic island of Malta, the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (the IIJ) is a leading international hub for sustainable rule of law-based training and cross-cutting capacity-building for criminal justice sector stakeholders in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
The IIJ was formed in 2014 with a governing board of 12 countries and the European Union to enhance the competencies of lawmakers, police, prosecutors, judges, corrections officials, and other criminal justice sector stakeholders to address terrorism and related transnational criminal activities within a rule of law framework. Since its inception, more than 5000 judges, prosecutors, investigators, parliamentarians, and other criminal justice practitioners from 123 countries have participated in over 150 IIJ programmes. As a key international institution in the field, the IIJ works tirelessly to enhance cooperation and information exchange among relevant authorities at the national, regional and international levels.
Academic Unit Background
The IIJ has developed a reputation for impact capacity-building for criminal justice practitioners challenged with fast evolving threats to international security. Following this success, the IIJ is now launching a one-of-a-kind Academic Unit to provide in-depth courses to criminal justice practitioners aimed at filling critical knowledge gaps necessary for successfully countering terrorism and transnational crime. Once fully operational, the Academic Unit will make a major contribution to the IIJ’s ecosystem of learning through foundational education and provide a resource for maintaining and expanding specialist knowledge in target areas.
Position
The Academic Unit will be designing and delivering courses for busy practitioners on the front lines in the fight against terrorism. Due to the current COVID-19 global pandemic, the Academic Unit is in the process of setting up an online eLearning platform (similar to the course management platforms that universities use for all of their courses). The IIJ will use this online platform to provide preparatory modules, based on a blended learning model. Face-to-face sessions are planned for 2021, with each session lasting two weeks. The Academic Unit courses will feature lecturettes, interactive online sessions, and other content on this online platform to advance learners’ knowledge of core issues if they cannot attend the in-person courses.
In order to achieve a level of foundational knowledge on the subject matter, courses will be intensive and efficient. A wide variety of adult learning methods, including a high ratio of facilitated interactive/collaborative learning elements, such as case studies and simulations drawn from real-world cases, interactive seminars, small group exercises and presentations, and other dynamic learning activities will thus be explored and iterated for the initial student cohorts to achieve maximum impact.
Resident Fellows will serve as the Academic Unit faculty and will be responsible for developing and delivering these practitioner courses. Fellows will work closely with the Academic Unit Director (their direct supervisor) and other Unit and IIJ staff to deliver an overall curriculum that best addresses practitioner needs and fills critical knowledge gaps relevant to the specific challenges of countering terrorism and transnational crime. To accomplish this, the Resident Fellows must innovate on approaches and learning methods, as well as collaborate with leading international specialists to create truly world-class learning experiences.
The IIJ is a highly collaborative environment, and the Resident Fellows will work closely with the Unit’s dedicated back office staff on the preparation and execution of courses. The Resident Fellows will also be supported in their course work by a roster of international experts that may assist in the design and delivery of course elements and otherwise provide specialist support where needed.
The successful applicants will also have an exciting opportunity to further elaborate the Unit’s scholarship and research agenda with the Director soon after arriving. While the initial focus of the Resident Fellows’ work will be launching the Unit’s initial courses, they will also be expected to advance scholarship in the field, including authoring/co-authoring publications and conducting relevant research to support IIJ objectives.
Qualifications
The design and delivery of state-of-the-art courses necessitates a sophisticated understanding of the changing landscape of terrorism and the associated criminal justice challenges facing practitioners within the IIJ’s geographic focus regions. The ideal candidate will have developed strong practitioner-related experience in criminal law that can be directly leveraged to enrich the learning experience of the attendees.
The candidate should demonstrate a criminal-legal practitioner background (i.e. prosecutor, judge, defence attorney/counsel), with a counter-terrorism focus, and have demonstrable criminal-justice-related teaching experience, including designing and executing complex, multi-method courses (e.g. a practitioner turned academic).
Candidates should demonstrate an appreciation for the nuances of varying legal systems (i.e. common, civil, religious, hybrid) in the context of counter-terrorism, as the Unit’s target audiences will have heterogeneous backgrounds in this regard.
As the Resident Fellows will be interfacing with stakeholders from all over the world, excellent cross-cultural communication skills are essential. We are looking for an energetic and dynamic individual, so applicants are strongly encouraged to highlight any rare or unique attributes that help them stand out – show us why you are special.
It is essential to address the following:
Academic/teaching/training qualifications:
- Demonstrate why you are qualified to design and administer courses and lecture at this level, especially related to terrorism. Have you ever been involved with curriculum development? Have you ever been involved with on-line training? Have you trained practitioners? Lectured at university? Designed creative workshops? Are you a professor?
- It would be preferable if you had an advanced academic degree (PhD/JD would be ideal) in law, criminology, criminal justice, or a related discipline, and a body of relevant academic publications.
- How would you deliver an online course faced with IT/WIFI challenges in the IIJ geographic focus countries and regions?
- Do you have a civil law background?
Practitioner qualifications:
- Since your attendees will be primarily mid-level practitioners, and the learning outcomes should be directly applicable to their work, it would be highly desirable if you were a current or former criminal justice practitioner (e.g. prosecutor, judge, defence attorney/counsel, etc.).
- If you would not classify yourself as a current/former ‘practitioner’ per se, demonstrate how your experience with ‘practitioners’ should otherwise qualify you for this position.
- The IIJ works with stakeholders from civil law, common law, and hybrid legal systems from Africa and Middle East, especially Sahel region, North Africa, Middle East and Horn of Africa, so share with us your experience in that regard.
- Please highlight any relevant counter-terrorism experience.
International experience:
- Explain your experience working and collaborating in an international environment. Experience training officials from other countries is also desirable.
Language:
- Full professional fluency in French is required. English language skills (i.e. at the level of leading academic/technical discussions and writing an academic paper with a limited number of grammatical errors is required). Arabic language skills are highly desirable. Indicate your fluency level.
Cover Letter:
Please focus your cover letter on answering two central questions:
What about this position is attractive to you in this stage of your career?
What core issues would you include and how does you experience show you have the necessary competencies to deliver an innovative online counter-terrorism curriculum for IIJ geographic focus civil law jurisdictions?
Please be succinct and keep total wordcount to a maximum of 500 words.
Deadline:
All interested applicants meeting the qualifications should submit a cover letter and resume/CV as soon as possible to the IIJ Executive Secretariat at BUNYANM@THEIIJ.ORG and BURIANENKOR@THEIIJ.ORG, clearly stating “RF_AU2019” in the subject line. The position will remain open until filled, and applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis.