What are the immediate non law firm career prospects from someone who studies and LLM with a focus on PIL? Asking particularly with respect to the USA and Singapore. Are there graduate research positions or long term fellowships that unis in these places offer to fresh grads, before they get to their PhD years? How long does it take until you can join as an associate professor at unis in these countries?

I need some real, structured advice on how to go through this, and I'd be grateful for any help/advice. Thanks in advance!

Regards,

A completely clueless law student who really wants to be in this space

Another comment has made some excellent points, but focusses on your field of interest specifically. That comment is right that academia is one of your best options, considering your field of interest. But the story doesn't end there, you will need to understand some home truths about how academic recruitment works outside India.

The concept of people getting into university teaching prior to a PhD and doing a PhD as a sort of top-up degree for promotion purposes is not the way it works outside India. They don't have no UGCNET etc. The PhD is the basic degree you need to even get started on the academic ladder. In other words, a PhD is an essential requirement for full time academic positions with the scope for promotion, even very juniour ones. Therefore, unless you are ready to put in the years of study required to get both an LLM and a PhD, your ambitions would be very hard to fulfil. True, in markets like the UK, you would still find some professors with extremely good research track records without PhDs. But if you take the extra second to notice things about them other than the fact that they haven't gotten a PhD, you will notice something else: that they are usually old enough that they would have entered the academic market in the 1970's or 80's, when academic recruitment in the UK without a doctorate was possible. It is so vanishingly rare now - speaking from personal experience, as one working to get into the UK academic market - that you should pretty much treat it as impossible.

My advice would be to treat Singapore and the U.S. in the same way. Let's just say that Singapore is likely, because of the ranking of its unis, to operate in a way similar to the British. As for the U.S.? We can begin by chuckling gently at the mere thought of any sort of relaxation of standards there. They are extraordinarily insular as it is. The UK/Singapore concept of being able to get into their academic market with a foreign qualifying law degree and U.S. postgraduate law degrees is, in any case, not there. You tend to need an American JD anyway for that (there might be a few people who got in without a JD, but those are exceptions that prove the rule). Usually, American law professors have a PhD in a non-law subject (e.g., philosophy), followed by a JD.

As a former student of PIL, I would say it's best suited only for research, academia or thinktanks. And these would require a postgraduate degree and a PhD. Moreover since the scope is very wide, i would ask to specialise in one area of International Law, and not just in PIL. Currently, international environment law and international trade law are the best bet. Moreover, once you've done your PhD and have a good academic record, plus atleast 3-4 publications, and a minimum 5 year teaching or research experience and good recommendations, then only can you think about working abroad. One way is to try and get into CILS in JNU. JNU, by name has a lot of connections abroad and therefore you can leverage it to your advantage. Otherwise find a professor that has connections abroad and try to get in touch with them. PIL is interesting, however not a career oriented subject. Better prepare for IFS instead.