In an increasingly globalized world, the study of international law subjects is increasingly vital to legal education and practice. The faculty has already recognized this reality by requiring Transnational Law in the first year. Students enrolled in the International Law Honors Concentration (the Concentration) will receive additional instruction and training in subject areas fundamental to the development of a transnational legal practice and in specialized courses related to their individualized career goals.
The Concentration provides a robust framework to guide students seeking to acquire the substantive legal knowledge, skills, work experiences, and professional contacts important for embarking on legal practice informed by international law subjects.
Faculty Concentration Advisors and Advisement
Professor Julian Ku will serve as the faculty advisor for this Concentration. The concentration faculty advisor may modify the Concentration requirements in exceptional circumstances upon notice to the Dean.
Guidance from a student’s concentration faculty advisor is an important element of successful completion of the Concentration. A concentration faculty advisor must approve a student’s enrollment in the Concentration. Students should meet with their advisor as soon as they find themselves interested in the Concentration, but in no event later than the course selection deadline for their fourth semester of study (or fifth semester of study for part-time students). An advisor may permit a student to enroll in the Concentration after the course selection deadline for their fourth semester of study (or fifth semester of study for part-time students), but only after determining that the student can realistically meet the requirements of the Concentration prior to graduation.
Once enrolled in the Concentration, students must meet with their faculty advisor at least once per semester, prior to that semester’s course selection deadline, in order to plan their course selection and review their progress in fulfilling the Concentration’s requirements. A student’s concentration faculty advisor must also review and approve the concentration writing requirement.
Concentration Requirements
Course Requirements
- Required Core Courses
Students must take one of the following courses:- International Law
- International Business Transactions
- Transnational Law
- Required Skills Courses
Students must take at least one of the following courses:- Political Asylum Clinic
- Global Externship
- Externship (with international focus, must be approved by advisor)
- Immigration Field Study
- International Commercial Arbitration (with Skills Lab)
- Law of International Trade (with Skills Lab)
- International Sales Law
- with International Sales Law Skills Lab
- Elective Courses
Students must take at least 3 additional elective courses from the list below. Additionally, any of the following mandatory core courses or skills courses not used to fulfill the mandatory or skills requirements may satisfy the elective requirement.- Approved Elective Courses
- Export Laws and Export Controls
- Regulation of International Markets
- International Commercial Arbitration
- International Commercial Dispute Resolution
- International Transactions: Commercial Paper in a Paperless Age
- International Family Law
- Foreign Affairs and the U.S. Constitution
- Use of Force in International Law: From Peacekeeping to Terrorism
- National Security and the Law
- Immigration Law
- Advanced Immigration Law and Citizenship
- European Union Law
- Introduction to the Economic Law of the European Union
- Law of Humanity and Law of Nations
- Law of Human Rights Seminar
- Law of the Sea
- International Environmental Law
- Energy, the Environment, and the Global Economy
- Global Climate Change and U.S. Law
- Comparative Health Care Regulation
- Comparative Health Care Liability: Compensation for Medical Accidents
- Comparative Cyberlaw
- Additionally, any other course approved by the student’s concentration advisor, including Independent Study, can be used to satisfy the elective course requirement.
- Approved Elective Courses
Writing Requirement
A student must complete a writing requirement that would satisfy either Writing Requirement I or II in any course, or via any Journal note or Independent Study, on an international law subject or subjects, as approved by the student’s concentration faculty advisor. It is permissible for the writing used to satisfy this requirement be the same writing used by the student to satisfy another Law School requirement.
Professional Development Requirement
The Professional Development Requirement is intended to highlight opportunities for students to gain exposure to and/or experience in the international law fields outside of the classroom and insure that students take advantage of at least one such opportunity. To satisfy the Professional Development Requirement, students must:
- Participate as a student member of a local, national, and/or international Bar committee;
- Participate in an international moot court competition;
- Participate in the International Law Society or Human Rights Law Society; or
- Engage in any other professional development activity of a similar type approved by the faculty concentration advisor.
Minimum G.P.A.
A minimum G.P.A. of 3.1 is required at the time of concentration. A G.P.A. of 3.1 need not be maintained throughout the student’s time in the Concentration. However a student must graduate with a 3.1 or higher in order to be awarded credit for the Concentration.