Queen's Law Launches New Global Law Program

Photo by Behrouz amouzgar

The class of 2008 ISC law students and instructors at the OECD in Paris. Larger Photo

Queen's Law students will retreat to an English castle next spring, where they will compare legal systems around the world.

Students will be participating in a new comparative law program which will join the successful Global Law Programs in international public and international business law. 

This third option opens 25 new spaces for law students to study at the Queen's International Study Centre in Herstmonceux, England. 

"We no longer operate within our own borders or legal systems," says Professor Martha Bailey, the Queen's faculty member who has planned the new program.  "It is impossible to have any work in law without at least some interaction with other legal systems."

Students enrolled in the program will take three courses.  The first will compare legal traditions around the world, one will focus on common and civil law, and one will cover the law of the European Union (EU).

These courses will be taught by academics from top Canadian and British universities and practitioners in international organizations.  "Next year's teachers are fantastic," says Bailey highlighting, among others, Nadine Thwaites, who works in Brussels at the Canadian Mission to the EU.

Gillian Ready, Assistant Dean of International Programs, adds that the comparative law curriculum complements the two established programs.  "The emphasis is a little different.  This program may particularly interest academically inclined students."

Last year a smashing success

The growth of the program is largely due to the success of previous years, says Ready.

"There was record interest in last year's programs, and everyone came back to Canada very pleased. We have such a high calibre level of instructors that we can't improve on that front, so we decided to expand into a new area."

Instructors in 2008 included a judge and a prosecutor from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and lawyers from the International Court of Arbitration, the Austrian Mission to the UN, and Clifford Chance, one of the world's biggest law firms.

Last spring's students also had the unique opportunity to participate in the bi-annual conference organized by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.  "Student access to that level of debate is very unusual," said Ready.  "It was a real coup for us to arrange for the students to attend."

Students listened to and participated in the debates, which focused on climate change.  In addition to Queen's students, the conference was attended by senior government and industry officials, academics, lawyers and activists from around the world.

International public law students also had the opportunity to meet with meet with former Supreme Court Justice and Human Rights High Commissioner for the United Nations, Louise Arbour, as well as officials at the International Committee for the Red Cross, the UN High Commission for Refugees, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Court. 

Not to be outdone, the students studying international business law participated in high level meetings at the Canadian Missions to the EU in Brussels and the WTO in Geneva, and a trip to the International Court of Arbitration in Paris. 

"This was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  The students were incredibly lucky," says Associate Dean (Academic) Stan Corbett, one of the instructors at the Castle.

Ready says next year's students can expect a similar experience.  "We're offering all kinds of wonderful opportunities that law students in my day certainly never had!"

Interested students should attend an information session on September 25 at 4:30 p.m. in room 201.  Applications will be accepted from Queen's and Dalhousie Law students during October.  Any places remaining will be available to students at other law schools after October 31.