Legal Research Intern

The Business and Human Rights Centre is seeking an enthusiastic, reliable and well-organised Legal Research Intern to work with our Corporate Legal Accountability team, including on our Just Transition Litigation project. This internship opportunity is for applicants currently enrolled at university and/or that should complete an internship as part of their studies, either studying law (LLB/LLM/JD or similar) or with a legal background.  

• Period: Minimum commitment of 14 hours a week, for a period of at least 4 months, starting in August/September 2026.  

• Location: This is a remote position in which the intern works from their home or university. Candidates must have at least 3.5 hours overlap within 8.30am-6pm CET. 

• Reimbursement of lunch expenses up to GBP 7/USD 9/ EUR 9 for interns who do not have funding for the internship from their university or other institution. 

• Application deadline: 14 June 2026 COB  

• To apply, please complete and return this application form. Kindly note that the application form is required; we will not accept CVs. 
   

About us 

The Business and Human Rights Centre is a global non-profit organisation that works with communities, civil society, companies and governments to put human rights at the heart of business to deliver a just economy, climate justice and end abuse. The Centre tracks the human rights policies and practices of over 10,000 companies worldwide to push for better human rights protections. Our website is a global business and human rights knowledge hub, delivering daily news in 11 languages, with over 150,000 active users per month. Our Weekly Update e-newsletter has over 16,000 subscribers globally, including advocates, business-people, governments, investors and the UN.   

The Centre’s Corporate Legal Accountability (CLA) programme aims to strengthen the legal accountability of business actors so that rightsholders can exercise their rights and access justice when abuses occur by providing lawyers, legal practitioners and affected people the tools they need to support stronger cases against companies and improve access to legal remedy. We operate the only global information hub on corporate legal accountability where we track strategic lawsuits against companies over human rights abuses, and monitor legislative development to help hold companies accountable. Our Corporate Legal Accountability Portal is updated daily with information and resources from around the world.  

Your tasks 

1. Online legal research and inputs: find relevant news, commentaries, reports and court documents relating to lawsuits from around the world against companies over alleged human rights and environmental abuses, and legislative developments (including the UN binding treaty); compose abstracts and titles; create and update information on the website, including broken links.    
    

1. Monitoring and writing of Daily Updates on the 12th session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on a Legally Binding Instrument (LBI) on business and human rights (19-23 October) as well as support and coordination of our work on the LBI. 
    

1. Drafting and updating lawsuit profiles: research and summarise legal information about lawsuits brought against companies to redress human rights abuse and present them in a concise, accessible format. This includes lawsuits linked to the just energy transition. 

1. Support Programme’s outputs: Draft the CLA Quarterly Update newsletter and participate in its dissemination; select key news items for inclusion in the Centre’s Weekly Update.  
    

1. Participate in (virtual) meetings, including fortnightly Global Team meetings with all staff and Regional Researchers.  
    

1. Additional Tasks: You may also be asked to assist the Centre with general, non-legal work, such as supporting our company response mechanism; liaising with relevant organisations etc.   

Please note that this internship is not academically oriented and does not involve extensive analysis or writing.  Rather, it is a practical internship focused on bringing global attention to company conduct affecting people and communities, with the aim of promoting respect for human rights.  

Required Skills and Qualifications  

• Legal studies. Currently enrolled in university, either studying law (LLB/LLM/JD or similar) or with a legal background. 

• Legal analysis and research skills. Academic and/or work experience carrying out legal research. 

• General research and analytical skills. Ability to carry out general research, including online and to summarise information clearly and succinctly. Demonstrated academic or professional experience carrying out research and analysing information.   

• Commitment to human rights. Interest in and commitment to promoting human rights.  

• Data input capacity. Ability and willingness to do large amount of routine data input on a daily basis. 

• Language skills. Excellent English language skills (reading/writing/speaking). Fluency in French, Spanish, Arabic or Russian highly is desirable (but not essential). Good working knowledge of other languages is a plus.   

• Initiative. Ability to use own initiative and to work independently. Motivated by achieving results and completing tasks. 

The Business and Human Rights Centre strives to be an equal opportunities employer.  
We reserve the right to close a position before the deadline in case of a high volume of applications or a change in the organisation’s priorities.  

TO APPLY: Complete and return this application form via our jobs portal. Kindly note that the application form is required; we will not accept CVs. If you need any additional support, please contact Giulia Vinzi at vinzi@business-humanrights.org.