For students interested in the world beyond the United States, we offer a Concentration in International and Comparative Law. The Concentration is designed to provide students with a curricular structure and with a means of advertising their interest and achievements in the field to prospective employers. Participation in the Concentration is not reported on the student's official law school transcript, but those students completing the Concentration will receive a formal certificate of completion from the Law School and are permitted to list their receipt of the certificate of completion on their resumes.
To complete the Concentration, the student must successfully complete either (a) five courses from the list below and a semester abroad, or (b) a total of eight courses or equivalent credits from the list below. Students earning a 3.5 cumulative average in courses fulfilling International Law Concentration requirements will receive Honors in the Concentration. If you believe you qualify for honors in the concentration, you need to submit along with your transcript a calculation of your GPA in the courses fulfilling the concentration, showing that your cumulative GPA in those courses is 3.5 or higher.
Please note that participation in the Summer in Geissen program or the short courses abroad programs does not count as a "semester abroad" for the purposes of the Concentration; however, credits earned during these Wisconsin Abroad programs can be counted as "equivalent credits" when determining whether the student has completed "a total of eight courses or equivalent credits."
Questions with respect to Concentration requirements should be sent to Professor Heinz Klug at heinz.klug@wisc.edu.
For more information on our international and comparative law classes, see the Curriculum Guide on International and Comparative Law.
I. Mandatory Courses
All required & must be taken at UW-Madison:
- International Law (Law 827)
- International Trade Law (Law 871)
- Comparative Law (Law 818) [Contact Prof Klug for alternative ways to meet this requirement.]
II. Mandatory Choice
At least one required from each of list A and B:
List A
- European Union Law
- Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Seminar
- International Business Transactions
- International Commercial Arbitration
- International Environmental Law
- International Human Rights
- International Taxation
- Law of Armed Conflict
- Selected Problems in International Law (Law 918)
List B (Comparative)
- Comparative Constitutional Law
- Immigration Law
- Islamic Law
- Law & Modernization in the Developing World Seminar
- Legal Pluralism (Legal Studies 510)
III. Semester Study Abroad
- Brazil (Catholic U - Rio)
- Brazil (FGV Law School - Sao Paulo)
- Chile (Portales - Santiago)
- France (Paris X, Nanterre)
- Germany (Giessen)
- India (National Law School, Bangalore)
- Italy (European Union Institute, Florence)
- Peru (Catholic U - Lima)
- South Africa (Witwatersrand - Johannesburg)
- Thailand (Thamassat)
- The Netherlands (Groningen)
- United Kingdom (Sheffield)
IV. Wisconsin Abroad
Note, these are courses that students take abroad. However, they count as regular courses, not as semester abroad courses. Further, they can fall into the comparative or international category -- list A or list B above -- depending on the course.
- Summer Program in International and Comparative Law in Giessen, Germany