Washington University School of Law and Case Western Reserve University School of Law are jointly offering an exciting opportunity to study international and comparative law during the summer at Utrecht University in The Netherlands - home of many of the world's most important international institutions.
Utrecht, founded by the Romans in 47 AD, has been a university town for centuries. The compact city has a lively medieval charm, featuring majestic churches, cobblestone-paved pedestrian streets, and a series of winding canals, all of which date back to the middle ages. The famed canal banks are lined with restaurants, bars, and clubs, behind which rise magnificent homes built in the 16th and 17th centuries. With its pleasant summer climate and English as a second language, Utrecht is an ideal place for American students to study abroad.
- Field trips include a visit to the International Court of
Justice, where participants in 2006 met with Judge
Thomas Buergenthal (front row center).
Most importantly, Utrecht is a short (30-minute) train ride from The Hague, which serves as the headquarters of the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Criminal Court, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons, the European Police Office, the European High Commissioner on National Minorities, the Hague Conference on Private International Law, and the European Patent Office. It is also just a two-hour ride from Brussels, headquarters of NATO and the Council of the European Union. The Summer Institute for Global Justice features field trips to several of these institutions and presentations by their leading officers.
Taught by prominent experts in the field from Europe and the United States, including Distinguished Visiting Jurist David Crane (former Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone), the six-week program focuses on courses related to comparative law and the international institutions located in The Hague and Brussels. The Summer Institute is accredited by the ABA. It is open to students in good standing at ABA accredited U.S. law schools and at non-U.S. undergraduate or graduate law programs, as well as graduates of those institutions.
Each student will enroll in three of the six courses offered during the program, for a total of six credits, transferable to most law schools. Students should check with their registrar's office to determine the transferability of grades and credits earned in this program and to decide how the program fits into the ABA residency requirements. It is unlikely that participation in a summer program will accelerate graduation for a full-time student. The number of admissions to the Summer Institute is limited to around 60 students to ensure small class sizes and intimate seminars in which students work and interact with each other and the faculty.