Case Western Reserve University School of Law is pleased to announce the launch of its International Development Law Lab in the Fall Term 2024. Adjunct Law Professor Rumu Sarkar leads the lab and also teaches the related course on International Development Law.
CWRU School of Law is known for the strength and breadth of its experiential offerings, including in International Law. PreLaw Magazine ranks the Law School in the top ten in practical education and US News ranks it #13 best in the nation in international law. In addition to the law school’s endowed Immigration Clinic and nine other legal clinics, CWRU also offers a variety of Labs to 2Ls and 3Ls.
“Our labs provide law students invaluable hands-on experience assisting non-profits and NGOs on high-profile and exciting cases,” said Michael Scharf, who heads up CWRU’s International Law program as Associate Dean for Global Legal Studies.
Starting in the fall of 2024, the Law School now offers a lab for students interested in the important field of International Development Law. The International Development Law Lab (the “IDL Lab”) is focused on social impact investing in the Global South. It currently has two anchor pro bono partners, one headquartered in Singapore and the other in India. The Law students are working on White Papers, policy guidelines, toolkits and legal templates that respond to the needs of the partner institutions under the direction of Sarkar.
The IDL Lab has entered into an academic partnership with the lab’s anchor client, the Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) which is headquartered in Singapore. The IDL Lab will be actively engaged in providing legal insights that support IIX’s many innovative, cutting-edge projects that empower women entrepreneurs in Asia and now, in Africa as well. IIX creates complex legal vehicles that capture financing from official donors such as the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade while also attracting capital from philanthropic and private actors. IIX has issued its groundbreaking Women’s Livelihood Bond™ series, and continues to be a strategic leader in the social impact investment space.
Stephen Petras, Director of CWRU’s Frederick K. Cox International Law Center, added, “Professor Sarkar’s leadership in the area of International Development Law is an asset to the law school but more importantly, her International Development Law course and lab are now constituent parts of the Cox Center. I am looking forward to working with her as she expands the lab and explores other ways of providing value-added learning experiences for our students as we move forward.”
Sarkar joined the Law School’s adjunct faculty in 2022 to teach a new course on International Development Law. She is the author of two leading textbooks in the field—“International Development Law” (Oxford University Press) and “Transnational Business Law” (Kluwer Law International) and she has taught as an adjunct law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, and has served as General Counsel and Assistant General Counsel to several organizations including the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).
“These international NGOs and private equity funds are doing vitally important work in the Global South to alleviate poverty, and empower woman entrepreneurs and other underserved communities,” Sarkar said of the lab’s partners. “The lab has just launched, but my students are already beginning to understand the legal complexities in using loan instruments and equity investments in creative ways to address the needs of the downstream end-users of this sophisticated financing.”
For more information about the lab or to join the lab as a partner institution, please contact Sarkar at rxs1200@case.edu.