Dean Announces New Chapter in The London Program

For more than 40 years, Notre Dame Law School has offered second-year law students in good standing an opportunity to study in London. Dean Nell Jessup Newton has now announced that beginning in 2011-2012, 2L students may choose between a one-semester or full-year option and 3L students will also be able to enroll in the London Program in the fall semester. The Notre Dame London Law Center, located in Trafalgar Square, will continue to offer a five-week summer program from late May to early August prior to the 2L school year as well.

Moreover, the dean announced, students will find new accommodations available to rent in the Royal Waterloo, a beautiful Notre Dame-owned building in the heart of London.

The London curriculum includes standard second-year classes, like Business Associations and Evidence, but the ultimate concentration is international law. In most classes, a comparative law element from one or more foreign systems is added to the base of the American law. The rest of the curriculum consists of international and comparative law electives.

“Students who come to London do so because they appreciate the increasingly global aspects of practicing law in the United States,” explains Program Director Geoffrey Bennett. “No longer is international law of interest only to multinational corporations that typically have a need for international expertise. Any practitioner now may need to be conscious of how easily a problem in domestic relations, intellectual property, or even crime can involve an international dimension.”