Melbourne Law School’s JD Program

I have been meaning to post about Melbourne Law School, my new academic home.  I imagine many of our readers will be familiar with our remarkable contingent of international law faculty: James Hathaway (our Dean), Gerry Simpson, Anne Orford, Diane Otto, Tim McCormack, and more than a dozen others.  What readers might not know is that Melbourne is in the process of becoming Australia’s first graduate-only law school.  We accepted our final cohort of LLB students in 2007; by 2012 we will have only JD, LLM, and PhD students, with the JD as our primary degree.  It’s a very significant move, one that we hope will further solidify Melbourne’s international reputation, attract more foreign students, and make our graduates even more competitive in the global legal market.  I have not yet taught our JDs, but all of my colleagues rave about how good they are.  That wouldn’t surprise me, given the quality of my LLBs — reflecting the fact that they basically need to be in the top 1% of Australian high-school students to get into the law school.

I also want to call attention to a brand-new joint degree program that Melbourne has established with NYU School of Law — the first of its kind in Australia.  The program offers two options.   The first is a four-year JD/JD program that will lead to degrees from both Melbourne and NYU.  Students will spend their first two years at one institution and the second two years at the other institution.  Melbourne students who participate in the program will be eligible for financial assistance from NYU and will have full access to its world-class careers office.  The second option is a JD/LLM program that will allow Melbourne students to earn a JD from Melbourne and an LLM from NYU in 3 1/2 years — one semester less than normal.

I can’t say enough good things about the law school — or about the city.  If anyone wants more information about what it’s like to study or teach at Melbourne, or in Australia generally, feel free to email me.