Syracuse's abundant global curriculum begins with International Law Firm, a unique option within the College of Law's nationally known Law Firm program, the required first year
course on legal writing, research and lawyering skills. Students selected for this section in the summer before they arrive spend part of the spring semester working on a "memorial" and oral argument to the International Court of Justice. Approximately one-third of the class is then selected for a moot court team that competes in Toronto each March. Graduates of International Law Firm have described this course as an opportunity for early academic exposure to global law and practice which is offered by very few other law schools.
After their first year, students interested in global law may choose any number of courses from a list that expands regularly in response to changing world events and student needs. A growing number of these courses integrate the World Wide Web into the classroom setting and many involve hands-on simulations of practical skills. For instance, in Negotiating and Drafting International Transactions Documents, students do just that, preparing contracts and licensing agreements, while in the more basic course, International Law, students are assigned to act as "plenipotentiaries" from a range of countries and international organizations in order to negotiate and draft multi-lateral treaties on arms control, environmental, public health, human rights, and other transnational problems. Other students assigned to these drafting groups serve as "special rapporteurs" and "general rapporteurs."
Global law and practice courses at Syracuse include:
- Chinese Law
- Comparative Law
- Conflicts of Law
- Contemporary Issues in Atrocity Law
- Counter-Terrorism and the Law
- European Union Law
- Immigration Law
- International and Foreign Intellectual Property
- International Business Transactions (formerly IBT I)
- International Communications Regulation in the US and EU
- International and Comparative Labor & Employment Law
- International Criminal Law
- International Environmental Law
- International, Foreign and Comparative Law Research Topics
- International Human Rights
- International Human Rights and Comparative Disability Law
- International Intellectual Property Law
- International Law
- International Sales Law and Arbitration
- International Trade Law (formerly IBT II)
- Legal Aspects of Future War
- Litigation in Regional Human Rights Courts
- National Security Law
- Native American Law (or Indigenous Law and Government)
- Negotiating and Drafting Int'l Transactions Documents
- Perspectives on Terrorism
- Refugee and Asylum Law
- Religion and the State
- Sovereignty, Colonialism and Indigenous Nations
- Taxation of Foreign Income and Persons
- Transitional Justice
(Courses vary from year to year.)
Law students who take International Law, either IBT or International Trade Law, and 9 other upper-class credits in international or comparative subjects, and fulfill their law school writing requirement on a global topic, are eligible to earn the Certificate in Global law and Practice at graduation. The Center annually honors from one to three outstanding certificate holders with the Center for Global Law and Practice award. (See the Handbook of Academic Rules for the official set of requirements for the GLAP certificate).
Syracuse law students interested in global law have the benefit of taking graduate level courses at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, which is consistently rated the premier graduate school in public administration in the United States. Credit may also be given for graduate level university courses in other appropriate fields such as languages. Law students additionally benefit from the increasing number of international social science students who enroll in law school courses.
Law students who concentrate on global subjects can also obtain Maxwell School joint degrees in International Relations, Political Science, or other liberal arts subjects, as well as joint degrees from the Syracuse University School of Management, the university's other professional schools and SUNY's School of Environmental Science and Forestry, all on the same campus.
During the summer, students have the opportunity for hands-on global law experiences through the College of Law's summer abroad programs in London, as well as the College of Law's new public interest externship program in Washington, D.C. Credit can in most cases also be transferred from ABA-approved summer abroad programs offered by other U.S. law schools.