International Programs
During the past decade, the Law School has made a major investment in the expansion and enhancement of its international and comparative law programs. In the core faculty, renowned scholars such as Russell Weintraub (one of the world's leading authorities on international litigation and conflicts), Phillip Bobbitt (author of The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History) and Jay Westbrook (co-author of the American Law Institute's Transnational Insolvency Project), have been joined by newer scholars such as Sarah Cleveland and Karen Engle, both international human rights scholars; and Patricia Hansen, an expert on NAFTA and international trade law. In the area of comparative law, Hans Baade (co-author of the leading casebook on Comparative Law) and Inga Markovits (an expert on socialist legal regimes) have been joined by the eminent comparativist Basil Markesinis (holder of a joint appointment with University College of London) and tort law and product liability specialist Jane Stapleton (holder of a joint appointment with Australian National University), and Ernest Young, whose recent scholarship focuses on comparative constitutional issues involving the European Union. Finally, the law school has developed continuing relationships with scholars who visit and teach on a regular basis, including Antonio Benjamin (Brazil), Francesco Francioni (Italy), Manuel Gonzalez Oropeza (Mexico), and Horatia Muir Watt (France).
And our students directly benefit from this investment. UT Law students now spend more time overseas than ever before in the school's history, as the result of an opening in exchanges around the world and new internship opportunities. This past fall nearly eighty students, about 20 percent of the graduating class, spent a semester in London, and thirty went on various exchanges to Australia, Latin America and Europe. Students also participated in prestigious international internships conducted with international courts, international institutions, and nongovernmental organizations in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. A growing number of foreign attorneys have been attracted to the law school's Master of Laws program, which includes an overview program on U.S. law for foreign attorneys, and a new program in Latin American and International Law that is open to U.S. attorneys as well as those from abroad. Many UT Law graduates are pursuing influential international careers and working on international projects throughout the world.
Additionally, students are supported by world class centers such as the important Institute for Transnational Law, which links Europe, Texas, and Latin America, and have the opportunity to pursue dual degree programs, to participate in various international moot court competitions, or to join organizations such as the Texas International Law Journal, and the U.S.-Mexico Bar Association. The law school also recently initiated a joint project with the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) aimed at strengthening judicial training in Mexico.
Students also have access to the resources of one of the larges universities in the world, providing support, classes, networks, and opportunities only a large university can provide. Our student body represents all 254 counties in Texas, all 50 states in the U.S., and 119 foreign countries. In addition to the incomparable resources of the Lozano Long Institute for Latin America Studies, various other UT-Austin centers focus on Asian, Middle Eastern, Mexican-American, Africa, Australian, and former Soviet-bloc country studies.
At the Law School the Tarlton Law Library of the Joseph D. Jamail Center for Legal Research, one of the nation's largest academic law libraries with over one million volumes, holds extensive collections in international, foreign, and comparative law. Visiting scholars from all over the world come to Austin to use the Law Library's resources, which include the major treaty series, collections of state practice, reports of international courts and arbitral institutions, as well as numerous treatises, commentaries, and journals in many languages. The collection of Latin American materials, particularly for Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Chile, is one of the strongest in the United States. The Law Library also maintains significant collections for the major common-law and Western European jurisdictions, and is an official depository for the publications of the European Union.