Program Specifics

Admissions Process and Qualifications

Program participants are selected from applicants who have been admitted to the full time J.D. Program for the upcoming Fall semester.  The GLS application form is separate from the J.D. application.  Applications will not be reviewed until complete.

To be admitted to the program, prospective Global Law Scholars must be fluent in English and must demonstrate a proficiency in a second language.  Oral proficiency is defined as the ability to speak in one’s second language in a clearly participatory manner and with sufficient fluency and accuracy that the student will be able to discuss political, economic, and international issues.  The necessary linguistic skills include the ability to narrate and describe with paragraph-length connected discourse in past, present, and future time frames.

Global Law Scholars are selected from the qualifying applicant pool based upon their prior academic records, personal and professional goals, and proven commitment to a career in international law or policy.  Such a commitment is often evidenced by applicants’ prior internships, study abroad, and work or volunteering experiences.  

Summary of Program Requirements

As is explained at greater length below, GLS students are in theory required to take a total of seven courses to satisfy program requirements, although in practice this may work out to only six courses because, as is explained below, two requirements may be satisfied with one qualifying seminar. 

Two of the seven required classes are classes created for, and restricted to, GLS students (First-year GLS seminar; Second-year GLS seminar). 

The other five are courses that are open to all GULC students.  Two of these five are foundational courses:  International Law I, which must be taken as an elective in students' first year; and International Law II, which must be taken in students' second year.

Students can choose the remaining three required courses or seminars from a lengthy list of qualifying alternatives.  The first must be a seminar that satisfies students' J.D. writing requirement and must deal with international, transnational, or comparative law.  The second is Comparative Law or one of a number of approved substitutes.  Please note that some of the approved substitutes for Comparative Law include seminars that also satisfy students’ J.D. writing requirement.  Thus, if a student selects a qualifying comparative law J.D. writing requirement seminar, the student will satisfy both requirements in one course. 

Finally, students are required to take a “focus” elective that involves international legal problems in a specific context.  This last requirement is designed to allow students to pull together the U.S., foreign, and international dimensions of legal problems in a specific substantive area.  This is a requirement that must be satisfied independent of the above requisites.  For example, students may not satisfy both this and the J.D. writing seminar requirement by taking one writing requirement seminar dealing with international legal problems in a specific context.

Students are encouraged, but not required, to take other relevant international courses.

Please Note:  GLS Students cannot elect to enroll in Section 3’s “Alternative” Curriculum.  We generally insist that all GLS students be enrolled in a single section, for solidarity as well as scheduling reasons.  More important, GLS students must take an international law elective in their first year, which serves as the prerequisite for many upper division classes and permits GLS students to begin taking internationally-oriented courses in the first semester of their second year.  Section 3 does not have electives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Revised October 15, 2008 - LS