In keeping with its educational mission of encouraging students to acquire both broad social awareness and technical professional competence, Iowa Law offers a strong program of study in the rapidly expanding fields of international and comparative law. It does so for essentially three reasons:

1. In an era of global interdependence, one must understand international law and foreign legal systems in order to be an effective lawyer.
2. As professionals and community leaders, lawyers familiar with international and comparative law are crucial to the formulation of public policy at all levels of our society.
3. The study of international and comparative law provides an essential theoretical foundation for all lawyers by affording unique insight into the nature of law and legal process.

Opportunities for Students in International and Comparative Law

From speakers and symposia to a law library with an outstanding array of international resources, a variety of opportunities exist for all students to get involved in international issues without ever leaving the College of Law. Co-curricular and extracurricular activities include:  

Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems (TLCP)
International Law Society (ILS)
International Law Students Association
Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition

Faculty

The College of Law ensures that all of its students are exposed to international perspectives. With the exception of the special LLM tutorial and writing seminar, LLM students take their courses with JD students from the school's rich offerings on US, international, and comparative law. Foreign research scholars also audit some courses. 

As a JD student, you might, for example, sit in one of your first-year classes with a Chinese judge or a young German lawyer, or take an upper-level seminar with students from Zimbabwe, Mexico, or Korea.

The following professors provide the chief teaching and research support for the International and Comparative Program at Iowa Law.

Curriculum

Iowa offers a broad range of opportunities to study international and comparative law in its curriculum. Particular specialties include comparative law, European Union law, international business law, the law of international economic institutions, international environmental law, the law of international finance, international human rights law, the law governing international organizations and the conduct of United States' foreign policy, the law of war, and legal reform in Africa and the Near East, East and Southeast Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the successor countries to the Soviet Union.

The courses listed here include all UI-approved College of Law courses in these subject areas. The College does not offer each course every year. The Guide to Courses contains a list of courses that have been offered within the past two academic years. It also lists courses the College expects to offer during the next academic year.