Resident Fellow

ABOUT THE IIJ:

The International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ) is an international organisation located in Malta with a mission to deliver innovative and sustainable capacity- building through the implementation of counter-terrorism-related, rule of law-based good practices developed by the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) and other international and regional fora.

Since its inauguration in 2014, the IIJ has trained more than 6000 criminal justice practitioners through its interactive capacity-building workshops – in Malta and abroad – that enhance the competencies of parliamentarians, judges, prosecutors, police, prison and other criminal justice practitioners to address terrorism and related transnational criminal activities within a rule of law framework. The IIJ delivers capacity-building training tailored to the needs of the regions it serves, including North, West and East Africa; the Middle East; and select engagement in the Balkans, and Central, South and Southeast Asia. For more information on the IIJ, please visit the IIJ’s website at www.theiij.org

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 launched in 2020 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. The Academic Unit is making a major contribution to the IIJ’s ecosystem of learning through foundational education and provides a resource for maintaining and expanding specialist knowledge in key geographic areas from its mission and vision statements.

Position:

The Academic Unit is designing and delivering courses for already working practitioners on the front lines in the fight against terrorism. The Academic Unit courses feature lecturettes, interactive online sessions, and other content on this online platform to advance a learners’ knowledge of core issues since they cannot currently attend the in-person courses.

In order to achieve a level of foundational knowledge on the subject matter, in-person courses will be intensive and well-organized at the practitioner level. 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 serve as the senior Academic Unit faculty and are responsible for developing and delivering these in-person practitioner courses, particularly with but not limited to common law systems. This Fellow will work closely with the Academic Unit Director and other 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 Fellow must innovate on approaches and learning methods, as well as collaborate with leading international specialists.

The IIJ is a highly collaborative environment, and the Resident Fellow will work closely with all dedicated staff on the preparation and execution of courses. The Resident Fellow will 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 applicant also has an exciting opportunity to further elaborate a scholarship and research agenda soon after arriving. While the initial focus of the Resident Fellow’s work is developing the curriculum further, s/he is also 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, defense attorney/counsel) with a counter-terrorism focus, and also 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 participants will have heterogeneous backgrounds in this regard.

As the Resident Fellow 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-like setting? Designed creative workshops?

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.

Do you have a common or civil law background?

Practitioner qualifications:

• At least 15 years of of experience.
• 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, defense 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 the Sahel region, North Africa, Middle East and the 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 English is required. Arabic or French language skills (i.e. at the level of leading academic/technical discussions and writing an academic paper with a limited number of grammatical errors) are highly desirable. Indicate your fluency levels.

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?

How does you experience show you have the necessary competencies to deliver an innovative in-person counter-terrorism curriculum focused on Common law jurisdictions?

Please be succinct and keep total wordcount to a maximum of 500 words.

Application Submission:

All interested applicants meeting the qualifications should submit a cover letter and resume to the IIJ Executive Secretariat at hr@theiij.org clearly stating “RF_AU2023” in the subject line.