Columbia Law School has been a leader in Chinese legal studies for more than thirty years.  The cornerstone of the Law School's program in Chinese law is the Center for Chinese Legal Studies. Established in 1983, the Center serves as the focal point for China-related curricular, extracurricular, and exchange activities that attract students and scholars from all over the world to Columbia Law School.  The Center hosts one of the largest concentrations outside Asia of students and scholars studying the law of China.

During each academic year, the Center hosts approximately fifty Chinese visiting scholars and students and more than fifty American law students who are proficient in the Chinese language and are committed to pursuing careers involving China.  This academic year, for example, more than forty-five students from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are enrolled at Columbia, divided approximately equally between the LL.M. and J.D. programs.  During each academic year the Center also hosts approximately ten visiting scholars from greater China.  The Center's greatest resource is this diverse group of students and scholars, who come not only to obtain a law degree, but also to foster greater understanding of each other's legal, economic, and political systems.

Columbia offers the widest range of courses on Chinese law of any law school in the United States, including classes that examine issues ranging from international trade to media and environmental law.   In addition, numerous Columbia faculty and students are engaged in original research into the Chinese legal system.  And the Center's weekly lunch lecture series brings dozens of outside experts to the law school to speak each year.

Columbia Law School has also been a leader in working with law schools and legal aid clinics in China to further the development of legal aid and clinical legal education.  Columbia clinical faculty are working with Chinese partners to develop clinical legal education in China, Columbia hosts public interest lawyers from China each year, and numerous  Columbia students work in public interest positions in China each summer.

Contact
Paulette Roberts
Director of Asian and Comparative Law Programs
Columbia Law School, Box A-28
435 W. 116th St.
New York, NY 10027
212-854-0685
PRober@law.columbia.edu