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For those who want to understand the law within a global context, BC Law offers a comprehensive program in international and comparative law delivered by a world-class faculty. Components of the program are carefully integrated, and yet it remains flexible. Students may choose an intensive program among courses, law review opportunities, moot court experiences, study abroad, and summer employment, or enrich their Law School experience through one course or activity at a time.
BC Law’s broad course offerings and small class sizes permit considerable personal interaction with faculty (see curriculum section on right). The international law curriculum integrates introductory level courses with electives in the areas of comparative law, international business law, tax, human rights law, trade law, international environmental law, and international legal research, while providing innovative and flexible study abroad programs. These programs are far more than simply classrooms overseas; they provide real-world training in the field. BC Law pioneered the ICTY program at the Hague, which gives students hands-on experience prosecuting war criminals at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and most recently, through the International Criminal Court. The London Program offers an internship at a British organization, as well as courses at King’s College in London. The flexibility of our overseas exchange and partnership arrangements, currently with over 60 universities, allow students to custom-design a program to suit their needs.
Closer to home, the Boston College Immigration & Asylum Project allows students to experience real-world immigration legal work on behalf of indigent asylum seekers, immigrants, and non-citizens. The Law & Justice in the Americas Program brings students and faculty together to work on law reform and justice projects. Other opportunities for hands-on learning include our Jessup International Moot Court, Boston College International and Comparative Law Review, and Third World Law Journal. The Owen M. Kupferschmid Holocaust/Human Rights Project and the International Law Society are student groups that sponsor conferences, presentations, and workshops by outside speakers.
BC Law faculty are active researchers and scholars in international and comparative law. Faculty have contributed books or book chapters to respected academic presses such as Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, University of Michigan Press, NYU Press, and to specialized legal and international publishers such as West Group, Kluwer, Routledge Press, Transnational, and Ashgate. Faculty regularly publish in major scholarly periodicals such as the American Journal of International Law, Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, Gazette du Palais, Columbia Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Tax Law Review, Michigan Journal of International Law, Japan Tax Law Review, Japan Institute of Labour Journal, and Betriebs-Berater.
Our professors have lectured at Eötvös Lorànd University in Budapest, the Monteverde Institute in Costa Rica, the Universities of Catania and Sienna in Italy, l’Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale in Boulogne, Oxford University, Cambridge University, the University of London, Australian National University in Canberra, the University of Sydney, the Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis in Brussels, University of Frankfurt, University of Tokyo, the University of Paris, and other major international and domestic conferences. BC Law faculty have received prestigious awards and fellowships such as Fulbright grants and are leaders in policy and practice-oriented initiatives such as the Council on Foreign Relations, federal advisory committees, American Bar Association national committees, working groups of professional societies like the American Society of International Law and International Law Association. Professor Hugh Ault, Special Advisor to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, received honorary degrees from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, and University of Stockholm for his work on international tax law. The new International Scholars Program will bring to BC Law Distinguished Scholars in Residence and Visiting Research Fellows each year.
Many professors whose principal interests would at first impression appear to be more domestic, also publish on international and comparative subjects. Professor Thomas Kohler is an eminent expert on German and European labor and employment law, and Professor Sanford Katz on comparative family law. Charles Baron was a visiting research fellow of the law faculty of the Italian European University Institute in 2000-2001, and has published numerous articles on biothethics in international journals.
Our students are a remarkable group of scholars, as diverse as they are talented. The class of 2006 speaks 18 languages. They have held positions in Americorps, the Korean Consulate, Peace Corps, Foreign Service, Department of Justice, the Korea Institute of Defense, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and the New York Times, among many others. They have lived in Germany, Switzerland, West Africa, South Korea, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador.
At BC Law, we understand that the future will bring a larger scope and complexity to the legal profession. We are well-prepared to face those challenges. Our mission includes not just training the lawyers of today, but providing our students with skills and perspectives that anticipate the needs of tomorrow.
