Educational Objectives

Because virtually all Stanford Law School graduates will encounter foreign legal systems and will work with lawyers and clients from other countries in their practices and post-graduate work, learning about foreign legal systems is accordingly an increasingly important aspect of legal education.

The educational objective of study at a foreign law school is to provide students with the opportunity to gain familiarity with foreign legal systems.  The specific goals of the Foreign Legal Study Program are:

  • To permit students to gain in-depth substantive knowledge of other legal systems that goes beyond what we offer at Stanford;
  • To provide students with exposure to foreign legal cultures, including an appreciation for the role that law plays in other societies; and
  • To give students the opportunity to interact with future lawyers from other legal systems in order to better understand how they reason, argue, and solve legal problems.

Students will be awarded credit only for a course of study that is related to the socio-legal environment of the country in which the foreign school is located or that has an international or comparative focus.