Monika Hlávková
Motivation Letter
“How will studying abroad contribute to my life and plans”
I have chosen to pursue an LLM degree at London School of Economics in order to gain further
expertise in the field of international law. I attained proficiency in Czech legal system by taking
courses in all of the major municipal and international law areas and now I feel that I would like to
devote my academic attention to more specialized issues. I am strongly convinced that such an
educational background would help me achieve my future career goal, which is, ultimately, to
work in legal affairs division of an international organization, such as the United Nations.
During the course of my studies, I have always been actively seeking opportunities to develop my
skills beyond what was strictly required by the curriculum. I enjoyed British Parliamentary debating
which helped me further improve my critical thinking and public speaking abilities. Not only did
I participate as a debater in various domestic and international events but I also remained active in
the Slovak Debate Association, a non-governmental organization responsible for facilitating the
debate programme in Slovakia. I regularly judged tournaments for secondary school students, I led
seminars as a lecturer and I helped prepare young debaters for international competitions while
holding a position on the National Training Team. I also taught a debating course at my University
and through all this valuable experience I learned how to effectively present academic issues to
audiences with diverse educational and social backgrounds. It is academic debate that largely
determined my professional aspirations and interests. I gained insight into questions of public policy
and social issues which drives me towards legal areas on the edge of law and politics, such as public
international law or constitutional law.
Later on, it was only a natural step for me to make use of the debating skills in more legal-focused
arenas. As a result, I participated in Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition and
contributed to the first ever advance of my university to the international rounds in Washington,
DC. The competition required me to engage in extensive individual research of controversial legal
issues as well as to put forward advanced legal arguments. It was during my involvement with the
moot court team that I became fully fascinated by international law. Precisely because it is a very
dynamic field of law, changing rapidly through state practice and leaving many issues without
definite black and white solution, it represents the art of legal reasoning at its very best.
I have a particular interest in the interconnected areas of international criminal law and the law of
armed conflicts. Therefore, the respective courses offered at LSE would help me gain a further
insight into these up-to-date areas of international law. Moreover, my diploma thesis was
concerned with prosecution of high-ranking state officials under the principle of universal
jurisdiction. During my studies at LSE, I would like to continue the research started in my thesis
and explore the issues of universal jurisdiction and immunities from jurisdiction in more depth.
Secondly, I have worked extensively with human rights cases during my year-long internship at the
Czech Contitutional Court. I learned that the real law only starts behind the black letter of the
statute. For example, simple day-to-day issues, such as tenancy conflicts, can raise difficult
questions of right to private and family life. This experience not only enabled me to gain a whole
different perspective on law, but also made me understand the importance and appeal of studying
international human rights law. This year’s Jessup Moot Court topic also aroused my interest in
Monika Hlávková
International Investment Law, especially the issues of expropration and its relation to human rights‘
protection. The LLM program at LSE is the only one from the universities I have been admitted to
that offers specialized courses in all of the above-mentioned areas of law and therefore is best suited
to my personal needs.
After I finish my postgraduate education, I would like to continue working with international law,
either at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, some other governmental body or directly in an
international organization. In the long term, I have a strong preference for the United Nations since
I perceive its work in the legal arena as extremely important. I specially appreciate the efforts of the
UN based International Law Commission on codification of existing rules of international law. It is
the author of such important documents as Draft Articles on State Responsibility or Draft Code of
Crimes, which gained world-wide respect and some rules already became part of customary
international law. The UN also adopted such groundbreaking documents as the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the 1948 Genocide Convention or contributed largely to the
establishment of the International Criminal Court. What I recenly see as the biggest problem is the
efficiency of international criminal justice and therefore I would like to contribute through my
work to the development of appropriate enforcement mechanisms.
It is said that for a career in Public International Law, a top quality LLM degree is almost ‘a must’,
and in this respect, London School of Economics is an obvious choice for me. It represents an
essential stage of my education which complements well my previous studies and work, but it also
opens a lot of new doors and provides opportunities for me to develop profesionally and personally
to achieve my career goals.