A worldview comes from many places, and right now Dean Odette Lienau, born in Indonesia and a scholar of international economic law and politics, is providing fresh perspectives and incentives to grow BC Law’s global imprint. With Associate Dean of Faculty and Global Programs Katharine Young, Director of Graduate and Global Programs Vik Kanwar, and a cohort of students and globe-savvy faculty, Lienau is realizing renewed emphasis on international scholarship and programs, study-abroad and LLM opportunities, exchange relationships, University collaborations, and more.
Here are some recent examples.
By the Numbers: More than 200 alumni are currently at work around the globe in law firms and nonprofits, corporations and technology companies, sports franchises and construction outfits. Thousands more in the US are running international projects.
Master Class: Now in its sixteenth year, BC Law’s LLM Program continues to draw top candidates from around the world, attracted by the full integration of the program into the JD curriculum and community and by research, experiential, and interdisciplinary opportunities University-wide.
Study in Foreign Lands: BC Law study abroad and exchange locations now include Germany, Colombia, France (2), China, Italy, and Ireland. Six students regularly do a semester-in-practice at Trinity College, Dublin. BC Law recently spearheaded the ESADE program in Barcelona for JD students and embarked on a joint Laurea Magistrale/LLM with Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.
Planet Fitness: David Wirth co-led a BC delegation of students and faculty overseas to observe a UN Conference of the Parties addressing climate change. He spent last spring on sabbatical at Germany’s Max Planck Institute, served on the Minderoo-Monaco Commission on plastics and human health, and attended negotiations on the global plastics convention in Paris.
Expanding Horizons: A worldview comes from many places, and right now Dean Odette Lienau, born in Indonesia and a scholar of international economic law and politics, is providing fresh perspectives and incentives to grow BC Law’s global imprint. With Associate Dean of Faculty and Global Programs Katharine Young, Director of Graduate and Global Programs Vik Kanwar, and a cohort of students and globe-savvy faculty, Lienau is realizing renewed emphasis on international scholarship and programs, study-abroad and LLM opportunities, exchange relationships, University collaborations, and more.
Worldly Good: Class valedictorian Heather Odell ’23 initiated an externship with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) in Costa Rica. Professors Daniel Kanstroom—who has developed collaborations with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights—and Daniela Urosa—who teaches in BC Law’s International Human Rights Practicum—led a group to Washington, DC, to visit the Organization of American States and be briefed at the commission. Students in the practicum write amicus briefs on IACtHR cases; one recently led to a positive outcome on rights for Guatemalan indigenous groups.
Scholarly Envoys: Frank Garcia co-authored an article on designing a multilateral investment court for procedural justice, and undertook a pro bono consultation (with an alum and law student) advising a developing country in its first bilateral free trade agreement. International tax expert Diane Ring was a special advisor on a legal research project funded by the EU, chairing a panel on corrupt practices and tax abuses; presented at Oxford; and served as an expert for a NATO-funded whistleblower research effort.
Circumnavigators: The first presentation of the new Global and Comparative Rule of Law Series was on Brazil’s presidential election with visiting scholars Pedro Lenza and Claudio Colnago. The University of Toronto’s Lisa Forman discussed global vaccine access at an event co-sponsored by BC’s Center for Human Rights and International Justice and the Schiller Institute’s Global Public Health and the Common Good program. The Faculty Workshop Series welcomed the University of Helsinki’s Martti Koskenniemi, London School of Economics’ Martin Loughlin, and University of Melbourne’s Farrah Ahmed.
Globe-Trotters: BC Law’s own professors ventured far and wide. Joan Blum completed her Fulbright at Tashkent University, Uzbekistan, where she devised a writing project on publication standards for international law journals, spoke at a national conference on amendments to the country’s constitution, and conducted workshops for prosecutors. Vlad Perju joined the editorial board of European Law Open and spoke in Rome, Poland, Dublin, and Luxembourg. Katharine Young presented on human rights trends in Berlin, London, Melbourne, and Izmir, Turkey, and, with Cathleen Kaveny, provided leadership to BC’s new Initiative on Global Ethics and Social Trust.
To read other pieces about BC Law abroad, please click here.