2016 Entering Class Profiles

Philip Jones, 2017, United States

On the LLM: I chose Fletcher because I am interested in studying international law in a multi-disciplinary way. If I took my LLM at a law school, I would have been among other legal professionals, but most of them would not be thinking about international issues. At Fletcher, most of my classmates are from other disciplines, but we are all working on international issues. While I am learning international law, I am also joining in non-law classes and adding security, international relations, and maritime affairs perspectives to my law curriculum. Moreover, the flexibility of the curriculum is fantastic. I am primarily interested in maritime law and national security law issues. By adding a maritime affairs course, a module in law of the sea, a security studies course, and a capstone based in international regulation of the shipping industry, I have transformed a generalist international law LLM into one that is specifically tailored to my professional needs.

A quintessential Fletcher moment: A quintessential Fletcher moment for me was a recent trip to Reykjavik with the maritime studies program for the Arctic Circle assembly. The Fletcher delegation was pulled from multiple backgrounds. Some of us were interested in law, some in marine policy, some in energy, some in environment, some in development, some in security. The conference was geared toward the Arctic from a broad point of view and one quickly gained a sense of the overlapping nature of problems in a geographic region like the arctic. One cannot hope to understand the problems without a broad based understanding of how their personal discipline fits into a wider picture. In this, Fletcher has the right philosophy to address the complex international issues of our time.