An LLM Program at Fletcher - A Unique Proposal
In a groundbreaking initiative, the Tufts University Board of Trustees unanimously approved a proposal on May 18, 2007 to establish a Master of Laws (LLM) in International Law degree program at The Fletcher School. It will be the first LLM program at a non-law school in the United States.
“A traditional legal education is not sufficient to educate a literate international lawyer in the arts needed to practice law in the globalized 21st century. Modern international lawyers require a broader contextual understanding ― not only of the law, but also of the disparate societies and inter-societal milieu in which it is made, interpreted, and applied,” explains Professor Michael Glennon of The Fletcher School who will be the first director of the LLM program.
He emphasizes that as the oldest and one of the most prestigious graduate schools of international affairs, Fletcher offers a unique interdisciplinary environment for the study of international law. The program’s courses will be “taught by a distinguished international law faculty with extensive real-world experience and complemented by The Fletcher School’s internationally acclaimed offerings in the areas of international relations, development economics, international security, environment and diplomacy,” he points out.
“The LLM program will address the historical, political, cultural and economic framework within which contemporary international lawyers operate. It will provide superb preparation for a new or continuing career in international or non-governmental organizations, executive and congressional organs, diplomatic missions, foreign and defense ministries, law firms, media, and other international institutions.”
The program will comprise twenty to thirty students and the duration will be one full academic year. The curriculum will embrace a wide array of international law courses, with Fletcher’s already substantial law courses to be augmented by several new courses, which could include international intellectual property, international criminal law, Islamic law, international tax law and European Union law. A student would be permitted to take no more than six law courses and no fewer than five law courses while completing the eight required courses.
A distinguishing feature of the proposed LLM program is that LLM students will participate regularly in Fletcher’s international law “High Table,” which will center upon an international law research colloquium that will be run by the entire law division and will include regular presentations by faculty, visiting scholars, speakers and students concerning their research. Another distinctive component of the program is that LLM students will complete their year in residence with a “capstone” symposium at Tufts’ breathtaking facilities in Talloires, France, during the spring.
The Fletcher LLM program promises to be one that aspires to excellence in all respects. Professor Joel Trachtman observed that “This will be a superior, interdisciplinary program that will redefine the parameters of what is traditionally understood as legal education by offering not only a rigorous international law education, but exposure to other disciplinary approaches in a particular area of academic interest. In this sense, the program may be considered a real category buster.”
-by Joie Chowdhury, MALD ‘08