[ID:0591]Public international law (PIL) is one of the fastest growing areas of law in the world. Specially created international criminal courts dealing with (for example) the armed conflicts in Sierra Leone, the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda continue to actively recruit experienced lawyers to prosecute the world's most heinous crimes. Lawyers representing non-governmental organizations are also busy lobbying governments to ratify the Kyoto Accord. Even corporations are getting into the act, pressuring governments to conclude international trade agreements that will give them rights to sue foreign governments that make it to difficult to extract profits from their investments.

The growth in the PIL industry is largely a recognition of the need to move beyond simply talking about making the world a better place and actually taking concrete steps to doing it. It's the ideal focus area   for internationally-minded legal professionals.

As an international society, we've decided that we won't let mass murderers escape responsibility for their actions, that the...