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Mission

The European Legal Studies Center enjoys an outstanding reputation for training students to assume leadership roles in international and European law, public affairs and the global economy.  The center’s New York home offers students rich research and professional opportunities that have helped establish Columbia Law School among the world’s preeminent institutions in which to study European law.

About The Center

teacher talking to students

Under co-directors Professors George A. Bermann and Anu Bradford, the European Legal Studies Center has embraced an international focus as the cornerstone of its broad-ranging academic and research activities and its student community. The center’s strength is derived from a truly unique set of attributes: faculty members who are leaders in their fields, preeminent guest academics and practitioners, and a diverse student body drawn from Europe and all other parts of the world. Our New York City location is an ideal place from which to study European law, as it is home to the United Nations, international corporate and NGO headquarters as well as to European embassies, consulates, and cultural centers.

Columbia Law School’s curriculum offers the most extraordinary array of international, comparative, and foreign law courses of any law school in the United States, enabling students to choose from approximately 70 courses related to the field. Students also can participate in a remarkably diverse set of relevant hands-on experiences, including externships at the U.N. or U.N. missions, clinical opportunities in human rights, as well as a number of prestigious international internships and clerkships.

In addition, Columbia was the first U.S. law school to establish a double-degree program consisting of a U.S. Juris Doctor and a foreign law degree, the French Mâitrise en Droit. The Law School continues to build upon its tradition of innovation, offering unparalleled opportunities to participate in a broad spectrum of foreign double-degree and study-abroad programs.