Columbia Law School has been internationalizing U.S. legal education since its founding before the American Civil War. Long before global markets and instant worldwide communications made these fields critical to the everyday work of practicing lawyers, and decades before most U.S. law schools offered even introductory courses in international and comparative law, the Columbia faculty and its students were developing the precepts and principles of both public international law and international economic law.
Today, Columbia's commitment to international and comparative law, reflected in the breadth of its permanent faculty and visiting professors who specialize in these fields, in the scope of its international curriculum and law library collections, in its rich and innovative study abroad programs, and in its path-breaking regional centers, has no peer among U.S. law schools.
