Welcome

"Our graduates face legal practice that is rapidly globalizing. The Institute will preserve W&L's long-standing tradition of teaching excellence and anchor it within this contemporary context." - Prof. Mark Drumbl, Director

The Transnational Law Institute supports and coordinates pedagogical innovations, externships, internships, and visiting faculty to help prepare students for the increasing globalization of legal practice. The Institute, which was established in 2006, is committed to the integrated study of international and comparative law, as well as those aspects of U.S. law that involve cross-border issues.

Mark A. Drumbl, the Class of 1975 Alumni Professor of Law, serves as the Institute's Director. The Institute is supported by a Board of Directors that includes members of the law faculty, economics and political science departments, and the College.

The Institute has introduced an International Law Practicum to the W&L curriculum. In the Practicum, offered both semesters by Professor Rice, a select number of upper-year students will have the opportunity to work directly with lawyers engaged in matters of international law in faculty supervised research, legal drafting, and client matters.  The initial focus of the Practicum will be in Cambodia.

The Institute assists students in assuming internships involving international or comparative law matters in organizations of their choice. These students are designated Institute Summer Associates. In 2007, Akiko Krystina Nishino, 08L, serves as an intern for the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT) in the Defence Support Section.  UNAKRT represents the international side of the 'hybrid court', known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which was created to bring to trial senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea and those who were most responsible for the crimes and serious violations of Cambodian penal law, international humanitarian law and custom, and international conventions recognized by Cambodia, that were committed between April 17, 1975 and January 6, 1979. Also in 2007, Seetha Srinivasan, 08L, is an Institute Summer Intern in Alexandria, Virginia, at the International Missing Children's Division of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children ("NCMEC").

In 2006, Nick Devereux, 07L, served as an intern for legal counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee in Washington D.C., and Mohamed Younis, also 07L, served as a trainee with African and Mid-East Refugee Assistance, a not-for-profit association in Cairo, Egypt.

The Institute also assists with, and supports, externships for graduates. James Lin '06L, joined the Human Rights Department of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, effective August 2006, and will be monitoring Bosnian war crimes trials among other responsibilities. Josh Nettinga, '07L, currently is with the OSCE in Sarajevo as well; as is Stephanie Barbour, a former JD exchange student at W&L who completed her legal studies at Trinity College, Dublin.

The Institute also coordinates visiting faculty who come to W&L for short periods of time to teach intensive courses. So far, global scholars include Prof. Jose Marcos Domingues, from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who offers an intensive course on Latin American Law and Prof. Martin Matthews of Oxford University, who offers a course on comparative tort law.  In 2007-2008, the Institute is excited that Russell Miller will visit at the law school and offer a course involving the German Law Journal which he edits, and that David Jordan will offer a new course on National Security Law.  The Institute also welcomes Visiting Scholars. In 2006, Aneta Spaic, Associate Professor of Law in Montenegro, visited with us and undertook research, and a public lecture, on the doctrine of fundamental breach in international contract law. 

The Institute also will serve to augment the scholarly life of the entire Washington and Lee community. Leading scholars and policymakers come to campus in an invited lecture series. In 2006, invited lecturers included Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School and Professor Cherif Bassiouni, who has held important positions with the United Nations, and is Distinguished Research Professor at DePaul University. In 2007-2008, the Institute will welcome Professor Jose Alvarez, President of the American Society of International Law and a chaired Professor of Law at Columbia University; David Crane, the former Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and currently Distinguished Professor at Syracuse University; and Helena Cobban, a celebrated journalist and author who has published extensively in mainstream presses and policy journals on the limits of international criminal law.  The Institute also hosts W&L alums whose practice involves international and comparative law.