06 Oct Harvard 1L Curriculum to Include International Law
06.10.06
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2 Comments
The story here, without many details. (HT: Orin Kerr at VC.) This adds Harvard to Michigan and Hofstra as schools that require IL in the first year, but Harvard’s move obviously increases the probability of a cascade (look at what’s happened in the wake of Harvard College’s decision on early admissions). Several others schools include IL-related courses as part of a limited menu of 1L electives. If readers know of other ways in which IL is being brought into the 1L universe, it would be interesting to hear about them.
Update: The details are found here. Note that students will be given a choice of public IL, international economic law, or comparative law, a contrast to Michigan’s unified transnational law 1L requirement.
Peter–
This is indeed an interesting development. BTW, Osgoode Hall has been experimenting with a transnational law course in the first year (I don’t know if they have retained it permanently). And of course many law courses of study in Europe require international law. From the commentary at VC, one can glean a range of views on the alternatives for the placement of IL in the American JD curriculum in addition to the required first-year course: 1)elective first-year course (offered as a 1-credit survey course at Stanford when I was there); 3) required upper-level (I’d be interested to know if any schools have experimented with this); 4) elective upper-level (the dominant model). As I have written before, I am not yet convinced IL needs to be a required course — at least not everywhere.
At a 2004 AALS conference on transnational/international legal education the point was made that globalization requires two kinds of lawyers: the “global internationalists” who offer broad strategic counsel to their clients and the “local functionaries” who serve on the ground within local, regional or national legal systems. Although I don’t entirely agree with the stark two-level construct, it does suggest that the top tier law schools should be moving toward requiring international law, as they tend to produce the lawyers most likely to serve in global/internationalist positions. It may therefore be more difficult to rationalize a IL requirement (particularly in the first year, where it means sacrificing other credits) for schools that produce, on the whole, local or regional attorneys. Of course, if one accepts the idea of the global interacting with the local, both groups of attorneys need some familiarity with the legal systems and cultures in which the other operates. And since many of our students go on to political leadership positions, the dichotomy between top schools and “the rest of us” may not be entirely useful.
The only real introduction we have to Il in the 1L universe at Mizzou is a one-hour session I have with students during orientation. I try to connect Missouri’s political and economic fortunes with the international system. It’s an opportunity to discuss a range of topics, from international standards on the death penalty (Roper v. Simmons was a Missouri case) to farm subsidies and trade. At a minimum, it helps recruit students to my upper-level elective course.
Should You Pursue an International Law Career
China Law Blog recently linked to a post I wrote in June while I was living and working in Beijing entitled, The Allure of Working in China. My post was a pugnacious post written in response to a post on Asia Business Intelligence. I was venting my general frustration with my own inability to reconcile my impatient desire to practice in China NOW as opposed to adhering to the sound advice of those who know better, which is that it would behoove me to get a couple years of legal experience in my home jurisdiction before going to China. Since