Areas of Focus
International and Comparative Law, and Globalization
Globalization is changing the world politically, economically, culturally, and legally. The Global Legal Studies Program will help prepare you for the global era in the classroom and out, thanks to our outstanding faculty, exchange programs, guest lecturers, and the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies.
Courses
Our international curriculum is designed to help students develop an international perspective on all sorts of legal issues, from securities regulation to human rights. Students usually begin by taking either Public International Law or International Business Transactions as a foundation for more advanced work. As the list below reflects, we offer a wide range of lecture classes and seminars in various fields of interest.
- Core Courses
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- Advanced Offerings
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- Research Seminars
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Student Activities and Opportunities
- The Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies focuses on interdisciplinary research on law and globalization. Student editors work with the editorial board in selecting student articles and notes and undertake most of the editorial work in preparing articles for publication. In addition, each year the IJGLS sponsors a major conference on issues connected with globalization.
- We encourage students interested in global legal studies to take advantage of one of our many study abroad programs.
- For almost 100 years, Indiana Law has been providing graduate education to lawyers and students from around the globe. Each year we welcome dozens of international students from many foreign countries to our graduate program.
- The Earl Snyder Lectureship in International Law, a collaboration between Indiana Law and Cambridge University, funds an annual lecture on international law by a prominent scholar or practitioner. The site of the lecture alternates between Cambridge and Bloomington.
- Students may compete for the Snyder Scholarship, which funds a summer internship at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at Cambridge University.
- The International Law Society sponsors guest speakers and informal discussions; and provides students with the opportunity to meet attorneys practicing in the international arena. The society also sponsors a team in the Jessup International Moot Court Competition each spring.
- Immigration Law Practicum (B556), the companion to Immigration Law (B669), focuses on representation of asylum applicants and of businesses seeking to bring skilled labor to the United States. Students also gain experience in the work of obtaining immigrant and nonimmigrant visas.
- Indiana Law’s Center for Constitutional Democracy in Plural Societies seeks to study and promote constitutional democracy in countries marked by ethnic, religious, linguistic, and other divisions. Founded and directed by John S. Hastings Professor of Law David Williams, the CCDPS focuses its work in Burma, Liberia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, training the reform leaders of these countries in constitutionalism, parliamentary process, and legal ordering. The center focuses its efforts on the constitutional aspects of democratic reform, enabling plural societies to peaceably provide meaningful self-governance to all their citizens. The CCDPS is the only educational institution in the United States that offers students the chance to work directly and regularly with foreign reform leaders to support constitutional democracy
- The Center for American and Global Security was established in March 2007 as an Indiana University research center. CAGS formulates and implements strategies to broaden and deepen Indiana University’s teaching, research, and service missions as they relate to homeland, national, and global security. Founded and directed by David P. Fidler, the James Louis Calamaras Professor of Law, CAGS has initiated several multidisciplinary activities, including projects concerning counterinsurgency, strategic languages and cultures, and national security letters
Interdisciplinary Work and Joint Degrees at Indiana University
IU has long been a leader in international studies, and we encourage law students in the global legal studies program to take international courses from the Kelley School of Business, the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, the Russian and East European Institute, the African Studies Program, the Near Eastern Studies Program, the Department of Central Eurasian Studies, the Center for West European Studies, and the Department of East Asian Studies.
Faculty
Several of our faculty members specialize in international law, including Professors Hannah Buxbaum (international business transactions), Paul Craig (European Union law), David Fidler (international law and public health, weapons of mass destruction), and Christiana Ochoa (human rights and international law). Many other faculty members teach international courses in their subject areas, including Fred Cate, William Hicks, Joseph Hoffmann, Marshall Leaffer, John Scanlan, and Elisabeth Zoller.
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