International Law
A Global Outlook
Southwestern has one of the most
comprehensive international law course rosters in California, with
an emphasis on legal issues in the western hemisphere.
The Southwestern Journal of Law and Trade in the
Americas
Southwestern established the only student-edited law
journal that focuses on law and economics in the Americas. The Journal also holds symposia featuring legal
experts and political leaders from North and South America.
Semester Abroad Opportunities
Southwestern maintains academic exchange programs with law schools
around the world. Formal, full-semester programs have been established
with:
Summer Abroad Programs
Southwestern offers four foreign
summer law programs, providing immersion in various cultural settings.
An Outside Voice
Opportunities to learn from speakers of various professions
within the international realm are plentiful. A sampling of recent
on campus speakers includes:
- Dr. Zhenis Kembayev, head of the Department of Law at
Kazakh-American University in Almaty, Kazakhstan and Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence
at Southwestern
- Paul Hoffman, chairman of Amnesty International
- Arjen van den Burg, director of research for the Netherlands
Nation Planning Agency in The Hague
- Professor Christian Courtis, a permanent law clerk of
the Supreme Court of the City of Buenos Aires and faculty member at
Universidad de Palermo and the Universidad de Buenos Aires
- Congresswoman Cristina Alberdi of Spain, former head
of the Ministry of Social Affairs and member of the Supreme Court
- Otilia Lux de Coti, the government of Guatemala's
minister of culture and sports and a representative in the department
of education
Courses
Southwestern's comprehensive international
law curriculum includes over 30 seminars
and courses such as:
- Comparative Law: Civil and Islamic Law
- European Union
- International and Comparative Intellectual Property
Law
- International Business Transactions with Latin America
- International Environmental Law and Policy
- Terrorism, National Security, Foeign Policy and Legal
Order
Faculty Experts
- One of legal education's foremost authorities
on public and private
international law and past-chair of the Section of International
Law and Practice of the American Bar Association and the Association
of American Law Schools
- An internationally recognized expert in land
use and community development
- An internationally recognized scholar on Latin
American laws and institutions
- An observer
for the United Nations of the trials of Indonesian military,
police and civilian administration officials accused of crimes against
humanity
- An invited participant to a conference in India sponsored
by The Center for
International Law and the Environmental Justice Initiative
- Past chair of the legal department of Kearney & MacCulloch
in Buenos Aires,
and one of the only female law partners in Argentina
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Trial Advocacy
Southwestern's Courtroom of the Future
The most technologically sophisticated center of its
kind in the United States, the Julian
C. Dixon Courtroom and Advocacy Center at Southwestern has been
designed to facilitate the teaching of effective advocacy, litigation
and alternative dispute resolution skills using the latest in audiovisual,
digital, and multimedia systems.
Developing Oral and Written Advocacy Skills
- Southwestern's nationally recognized Moot
Court Honors Program is one of the most extensive, fielding 15
or more teams each year in interscholastic appellate advocacy competitions
around the U.S.
- Through the Trial Advocacy Honors Program, students also compete in national
and regional Trial Advocacy competitions structured as mock trials.
- Additionally, Southwestern students participate in Client
Counseling, Environmental Law Negotiation and Legal Negotiating Competitions.
- Southwestern's Annual Intramural Moot
Court Competitio n serves as the culmination of the first-year
Legal Research and Writing course. Students are presented with a
hypothetical case for which they submit written appellate briefs
and participate in oral rounds, followed by finalists arguing before
a bench of state Supreme Court Justices.
Real World Experience
More than 100 externship placements
include such settings as:
- Federal Public Defender's Office
- Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office (past
placements have included Central Trials, Family Violence, Major Crimes
and Preliminary Hearings)
- Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office
- Los Angeles County Superior Court
- Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Santa Monica and Torrance City
Attorney's Office
- Orange County District Attorney's Office
Criminal Law
Summer Program with a Criminal Law Emphasis
Southwestern offers a four-week Summer Law Program in Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada in collaboration with the University
of British Columbia and the International Centre for Criminal Law
Reform and Criminal Justice Policy.
Courses
The criminal
law curriculum at Southwestern consists of more than 20 courses
and seminars, including:
- Comparative Criminal Justice
- The Criminal Justice Response to Terrorism
- Criminal Law Theory
- Evidence: Role of the Jury
- Forensic Evidence
- Race and Gender Issues in Criminal Justice
- White Collar Crime and Other Aspects of Federal Criminal
Law
Faculty Experts
- A nationally recognized expert in evidence
and procedure and past-chair of the ABA Criminal Justice Section
- The author of a definitive text on white
collar crime
- A long-term member of the Los
Angeles County Bar Association Criminal Justice Section Executive
Committee
- The author of numerous books on criminal
law, criminal procedure and evidence
- A criminal law expert who has provided legal
commentary during numerous high profile trials through a vast
array of media outlets around the globe
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