The International Legal Studies Program at California Western offers an enriched Juris Doctor and Masters in Comparative Law curriculum in international and comparative law. The classroom emphasis on theory and practice is complemented with extracurricular programs that highlight the role of international law in today’s global economy. The program also promotes scholarly work in international and comparative law through faculty development, research support, internship opporunities, and scholarly exchanges.
The International Legal Studies Program (ILSP) was established in 1986 to highlight the California Western’s robust academic program in the areas of international and comparative law. California Western offers numerous courses and internships and field placements that can lead to an Area of Concentration in International Law. Additional opportunities for students include the Jessup International Law Moot Court Team, the California Western International Law Journal, and other student organizations including the International Law Society, Amnesty International and La Raza Student Bar Association. The director of the ILSP is Professor James Cooper.
ILSP regularly sponsors visiting scholars and distinguished speakers, including the periodic S. Houston Lay lectureship and an annual joint speaker series with the Institute for International, Comparative, and Area Studies at UCSD. Recent series include After Outrage:The Future of International Humanitarian Law; Border Wars: The Law, Politics, and Ethics of Immigration; Human Rights in the New Age of Terror; Human Rights and International Institutions after Iraq; and From Climate Change to Global Sustainability: The Great Transition.
In addition, ILSP offers a Visiting Scholar Program by invitation to foreign legal academics and lawyers to conduct independent research in the United States and spend time on our campus. The law school has welcomed Visiting Scholars from a variety of countries, including Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iran, New Zealand, Nigeria, Slovenia, and Taiwan. We also host international teachers and practitioners of international law from around the world. Recent lecturers have included Senator Marcelo Duarte Manzoni of Paraguay and Professor Carlos Ruffinelli of the Centro de Estudios de Derecho, Economía y Política in Asuncion, Paraguay. In October 2011, Luis Valentín Ferrada Walker, a lawyer with Chile’s Defense Ministry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spoke on the international legal issues surrounding Antarctica.
Since 2001, California Western has administered the Castetter Visiting Foreign Law Professor Program, which features short courses taught by foreign law professors that enrich the international and multicultural atmosphere at the law school. Professor Thomas Lundmark of Germany, Professor Erik Franckx of Belgium, and Professor Michael Tsai, former National Defense Minister of Taiwan, have taught at the law school as part of this program. In 2012, Professor Thilo Marauhn of Germany will be the Castetter Visiting Foreign Law Professor.
