Semester Abroad

The Semester Abroad Program is a wonderful opportunity for Harvard Law School students to receive a semester of ungraded credit towards the Harvard JD degree for study at a law school overseas.  The study abroad program is intended to afford students an educational experience not available at Harvard Law School – immersion in a foreign legal culture.  This includes exposure to what makes the legal system function as it does – its underlying assumptions, how local lawyers think about law, what law is designed to do, and how it relates to the society more broadly.

While immersion in a foreign legal culture is one educational aspect of a study abroad experience, for most students it will not be the only one.  For some students, there may be particular substantive areas of law that are covered in greater depth abroad than is the case at HLS.  Other students may be contemplating a career with substantial ties to a particular country or region, and therefore may wish to learn as much as possible about the legal system(s) of that country or region.  Others may desire a broader exposure to the civil law system than is available at HLS.  Each student has a specific constellation of reasons for wanting to study law in a foreign setting.  Accordingly, students design a semester abroad that meets their specific academic goals.

In recent years students have developed individualized programs of study abroad that have enabled them to explore the following: commercial and capital market regulation in Argentina; rights of indigenous people in Australia; environmental law in China; and European take-over law, among others.

There are two categories of semester abroad programs:

1. Exchange programs: HLS students may apply for designated spots for a semester’s study at selected foreign law schools with which HLS has an exchange agreement
2. Independent semester abroad: HLS students may choose to spend an “independent” semester at any foreign law school that meets the study abroad program requirements (please see below for more information).

Study Abroad Locations

Exchange Programs

Harvard Law School has exchange agreements with a number of foreign schools that have a designated number of places for HLS students to spend a semester abroad, subject to acceptance by the foreign school. The list of participating schools currently includes:

University of Geneva Faculty of Law and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva, Switzerland)

University of Sydney Law School (Sydney, Australia)

Fudan University Law School (Shanghai, China)

University of Tokyo, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics (Tokyo, Japan)

Fundação Getulio Vargas Schools of Law (Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil)

University of Chile School of Law (Santiago, Chile)

University of the Witwatersrand School of Law (Johannesburg, South Africa)

Each school will accept a designated number of HLS JD students per year through the same application process as the general study abroad program. As such, students will need to gain approval from both the HLS study abroad committee and the host institution.

Independent Semester Abroad

The semester abroad program does not limit students’ options to a specific school or country but includes a range of top foreign institutions.  According to the American Bar Association criteria, “the foreign institution will generally be one that is government sanctioned or recognized, if educational institutions are state regulated within the country; recognized or approved by an evaluation body, if such an agency exists within the country; or chartered to award degrees in law by the appropriate authority within the country” (ABA Criteria Section I.C.1.).  In addition, the school should be one that is generally viewed as offering one of the top law programs in its country or geographic region.  HLS students may not enroll in programs of US schools given abroad or programs designed expressly for American students or those from countries other than that in which the school is located.

In the past, HLS students have studied abroad for a semester at:

• University of Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
• University of Melbourne (Melbourne, Australia)
• University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia)
• University of the West Indies (Bridgetown, Barbados)
• Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Brussels, Belgium)
• University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada)
• Pontifica Universidad Catolica (Santiago, Chile)
• Peking University (Beijing, China)
• Tsinghua University (Beijing, China)
• University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China)
• London School of Economics (London, England)
• Queen Mary, University of London (London, England)
• School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (London, England)
• University of Ghana (Accra, Ghana)
• Hebrew University (Jerusalem, Israel)
• Università degli Studi di Firenze (Florence, Italy)
• Libera Universita Internazionale del Studi Sociali (Rome, Italy)
• Keio University (Tokyo, Japan)
• University of Leiden (Leiden, Netherlands)
• Vrije University (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
• University of Cape Town (Cape Town, South Africa)
• Seoul National University (Seoul, South Korea)
• Instituto de Empresa (Madrid, Spain)
• University Ramon Llull (Barcelona, Spain)
• Universidad Pontifica Comillas (Madrid, Spain)

HLS also has a joint degree program with the University of Cambridge that involves spending a year in England reading for an LLM degree.

Resources

Application Process

The opportunity to study abroad is available to students in either semester of the second year or in the first semester of the third year.  Study abroad proposals for the first year or the second semester of the third year will not be approved.  Students who transfer to HLS after completing their first year at another law school are eligible to study abroad in the Fall of their 3L year.  JD students who are foreign nationals normally will not be approved for study abroad in their home country.  JD students who are enrolled in joint degree programs may not be eligible for the semester abroad program. 

Potential participants in the program initiate the planning process for their own program of study.  The International Legal Studies staff is happy to work with students in order to help them develop an appropriately tailored application that meets the program’s requirements.  This involves thinking through educational objectives with reference to Harvard’s broader statement above, identifying the country and school for study, and developing a preliminary list of courses. 

Application materials for semester abroad (independent semester abroad and exchange programs) are due by September 15, 2009, for students wishing to study abroad in Spring 2010, and February 15, 2010 for students wishing to go abroad for Fall 2010.  Applications should be submitted to Sara Zucker in Lewis 231 or by e-mail to szucker@law.harvard.edu.

Students considering semester abroad are encouraged to meet with a member of the International Legal Studies staff as needed but applicants must do so at least once prior to, or shortly following, the submission of a proposal.

The Study Abroad Committee, which consists of faculty and staff, reviews the completed HLS application and takes into consideration the following criteria:  academic record at Harvard Law School to date; the student’s motivation for study abroad including educational objectives and the “fit” between those objectives and the proposed program of study and the selected institution abroad. Generally, students who are approved for study abroad have achieved a cumulative average of at least Pass in their HLS classes.

Please note that students applying for designated spots in HLS exchange programs must be recommended by the HLS Study Abroad Committee but ultimately selections are made by the foreign law schools (see above for a list of foreign schools with which HLS has an agreement).  Students applying for the independent semester abroad program must receive approval from the HLS Study Abroad Committee as well as apply directly to the host institution in accordance with the foreign school’s application process and receive an acceptance by the foreign school.

Credits, Written Work, and Course Load Requirements

Students must be enrolled at the foreign school for a minimum of 13 contiguous weeks. Students may receive a total of 11 to 13 ungraded credits for coursework done through the semester abroad program.  In order to ensure that the proposed course of study is a rigorous one, students supply descriptions of the courses they propose to take before the fact, with instructor names and reading lists if possible.  Students are urged to develop this list of courses in consultation with their faculty advisors both at HLS and the foreign school.  Ultimately, the HLS faculty advisor will be asked to confirm that the courses selected meet the student’s outlined educational objectives. Students must also obtain a letter from the foreign school faculty advisor confirming the student’s course load. Students’ course selection must be approved by the Study Abroad Committee.

It is important to remember that a primary purpose of spending a semester abroad is to take law courses that are different from what is offered at HLS. While students are encouraged to develop an individualized course of study, there are some restrictions regarding course selections.

• Students studying abroad may not take classes that duplicate classes they have taken or intend to take at HLS.
• Courses on US law will not be approved.
• Students must take courses in the usual language(s) of instruction of the foreign school. Some schools offer courses in English to their regularly enrolled degree students. However, HLS students may not enroll in courses designed expressly for American students or students from countries other than that in which the school is located.
• Students who wish to enroll in courses listed by the foreign school in disciplines or departments other than law must receive express permission from the Study Abroad Committee prior to enrolling in such courses. Should students be allowed to take a course in another discipline, the correlating credits will count towards the maximum allowable for cross-registration in accordance with HLS’ academic policies.
• Foreign language courses taken abroad will not count for HLS credit.
• Independent research and study will not count as classroom hours for purposes of calculating credits.
• Credit will not be granted for any course taken abroad that serves as a prerequisite to another course taken abroad, if the prerequisite could have been completed at HLS.
• Students may not receive clinical credit for an externship undertaken while studying abroad for the semester. The HLS Office of Clinical Programs will evaluate in-house clinics at the foreign law school on a case-by-case basis, and students need to receive permission from the Office of Clinical Programs and the Study Abroad Committee before incorporating a clinical placement into a program of study abroad.

In order to receive Harvard credit for work overseas, students must earn the school’s minimum passing grade for all of their courses and provide HLS with an official version of their transcript from the foreign school.  Students also should retain copies of all of the written work done at the foreign school and be prepared to submit that work to their HLS faculty advisor for review after return if requested.  Finally, following return to Harvard (by March 15 if abroad during the Fall semester or September 15 if abroad during the Spring semester), students must submit:

(a) an independent one-credit paper, supervised by the student’s Harvard Law School faculty advisor and written for a grade, that relates what the student has learned to his/her understanding of American law or particular American legal institutions and to the study objectives the student articulated.  As with any paper submitted for a Harvard Law School grade, the paper should be a substantive effort involving analysis, synthesis and research; it is not simply a report.  In order to develop the topic and clarify expectations for this paper (including length), the student should consult with his/her faculty advisor before the semester abroad as well as during the time away.  In addition, the student should meet with his/her faculty advisor upon return to HLS, before completing the paper. 

(b) a brief report (no more than five pages) that recounts the student’s experience in more practical terms: ease of assimilating, manner of instruction, library facilities, student services, etc. as information that may be useful to students interested in studying at that school in the future.

If students successfully complete all of these requirements, their Harvard transcript will reflect 10 to 12 credits (depending on the course load), graded “pass”, for study abroad work.  These credits will be considered classroom credits and therefore not count against the HLS allowable maximum of non-classroom credits.  The particular courses taken overseas will not appear on students’ Harvard transcript, nor will the grades for those courses.  The one-credit paper written for the Harvard faculty advisor will appear separately, like any other independent one-credit paper and must receive a passing grade, which will be noted on students’ HLS transcript.  No credit for the paper or the coursework abroad will appear until students submit and receive approval on the paper and report referred to above and their foreign transcript is received. 

It is students’ responsibility to ensure that the HLS Registrar’s Office receives their transcript in a timely fashion.  If students fail any of their courses overseas, the number of credits received for studies abroad will be reduced proportionately.  Students should be aware that grading systems in some countries are quite severe and that many local students fail one or more examinations on their first attempt.

Faculty Advisors

Students work with two faculty advisors, one at HLS and another at the foreign school, to develop an appropriate course of study:

(a) The full-time faculty member at Harvard monitors the student’s activities overseas (including approving the student’s program of study and reviewing any written work done while there) and supervises a one-credit paper for a grade after return.

(b) The full-time faculty member at the foreign school acts as the student's primary contact while overseas and provides confirmation of the courses in which the student has enrolled.

Identifying an appropriate HLS faculty advisor is something students should consider early in the process.  Ideally, students should match their interests with a faculty member who has done work in that specific field.   Please note that the role of advisors is limited to HLS professors; faculty members holding the title of lecturer or visiting professor are not eligible.  The International Legal Studies staff can help students identify appropriate faculty advisors.

Tuition

Harvard Law School charges each student going abroad regular HLS tuition for the period abroad; tuition costs of the foreign school are billed to Harvard rather than to the student.  Students remain fully eligible for regular Harvard financial aid and student loans for the semester abroad as if they had remained at HLS for the semester in question.

Travel, Living Expenses, and Medical Insurance

Students are responsible for making their own visa, travel, and living arrangements (including health insurance) in the foreign country, and for all associated costs.  Living and studying abroad can be expensive and students should plan and budget accordingly.  To help defray these costs students receive a budget increase of $1,500.

Students must obtain adequate health insurance coverage from an approved provider before departure. Students may also wish to waive the Blue Cross Blue Shield and University Health Service fees. For detailed information please consult the HUHS website.

The International SOS Travel Assistance Program offers “24 hour worldwide emergency medical and evacuation assistance for Harvard’s employees and students traveling on University related activities.”  It is a supplement to (not a substitute for) health insurance and can provide medical information and evacuation services, emergency assistance including translation services, legal referrals, and general travel advice, among other things.  Further information can be found on the HLS International Travel website.  Harvard students are automatically included in the university’s membership plan but must log in and register (see the HLS International Travel website for log in information).

ILS Contact

For questions, please contact Sara Zucker, Director of International Legal Studies Programs, at szucker@law.harvard.edu or 5-9030.  Sara is available to talk to students by appointment as well as during office hours on Tuesdays from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. and Thursdays from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m.  Sara’s office is located in room 231 of the Lewis International Law Center.

Students may also direct questions to Ben Cook, International Legal Studies Program Officer, at bcook@law.harvard.edu or 6-0899. Ben's office is located in room 137 of the Lewis International Law Center.

International Legal Studies website: http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/spotlight/ils/index.html