Global Engagement

The center's mission is to help prepare students for transnational legal practice by exposing them to ideas, faculty, and fellow students from different legal systems and cultures. CTLS received the Andrew Heiskell Award for International Partnerships from the Institute for International Education in 2011, the first time a legal education program has been recognized.

Global Legal Education

Established in 2008, CTLS aims to provide its students with an understanding of the global legal context in a diverse, intercultural environment. Georgetown's Law Center is one of the founding schools, and Law Center Dean William Treanor serves as the chairman of the board.

The student body at CTLS hails from all 24 participating schools, creating a diverse and dynamic study environment. Students study in London for one semester, enrolling in three mandatory core courses and an elective of their choice. Topics offered include international human rights law, global tax law, global securities law, and global arbitration.

Faculty are specially selected from the 24 law schools; in the 2014-2015 academic year, faculty were chosen from 11 of the participating schools. Students are able to interact with faculty informally and outside of the classroom through social events, including a weekly afternoon tea and field trips to locations such as the Hague.

In the words of Shangjun Tan, a CTLS alumnus from the National University of Singapore, "Whilst other exchange programs usually involve students immersing themselves in a foreign university, CTLS is unique in that it brings together students and professors from over 20 schools on five continents."

"We could very well be contemporaries in a particular field of law in the near future, and building bonds of friendship now makes the prospect of future collaboration or interaction even more interesting," Tan adds.