Curriculum Guide on International and Comparative Law
International and comparative law involves a wide variety of legal work driven by the increasing globalization of the world's economies. A growing number of U.S.-based lawyers are practicing international law in law firms, corporate legal departments, nonprofits, and government agencies. Although most jobs are found in large cities, this, too, is changing. Jobs may require an expertise in public and/or private international law. Alternatively, they may require a strong background in comparative law, namely knowledge of how other legal systems are organized and the substantive law of other countries.
Many international lawyers work in
large law firms that have departments specializing in international trade. International lawyers in the private sector most frequently represent foreign companies seeking to do business in the United States and domestic corporations doing business abroad. Lawyers representing foreign clients provide a wide range of business services, including the formation of business entities; compliance with federal, state, and local U.S. tax laws; employment law; environmental and regulatory requirements; intellectual property; product or service distribution; and all other aspects of establishing and running businesses in the United States. Lawyers representing domestic clients interested in doing business abroad draft contracts and agreements; open branch offices and subsidiaries; structure foreign operations; ensure intellectual property protection including patents, trademarks, and tradenames; supervise international litigation and arbitration; and conduct international financial transactions.
Core/Foundation Courses
These are the basic courses for the specialty. An employer is likely to expect a student interested in the specialty to take at least two of the following :
- Comparative Law
- International Business Transactions
- International Law
- International Trade Law
Recommended Courses
Students interested in this practice area should consider including courses from the "International Law" area and the "Comparative Law" area as electives. See International and Comparative Law Concentration for information on the requirements for the concentration.
International Law Courses
- European Union Law
- Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Seminar
- International Business Transactions
- International Commercial Arbitration
- International Environmental Law
- International Human Rights Law
- International Intellectual Property
- International Taxation
- Law of Armed Conflict
- Selected Problems in International Law (Law 918)
Comparative Law Courses
- African Law
- Chinese Law
- Comparative Constitutional Law
- Islamic Law
- Latin American Legal Institutions
- Law of Armed Conflict
- Law and Modernization in the Developing World
- Legal Issues involving North America and East Asia
- Legal Pluralism (Legal Studies 510)
- Russian Legal Process
- Trials of the Holocaust
