Earlier this year, the School of Law was counted among the top 20 international law programs in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
The school’s influence in international law can be traced to the center’s 2023–24 leadership team of Diane Marie Amann (Regents’ Professor of International Law, holder of the Woodruff Chair & faculty co-director), Christopher M. Bruner (Stembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law & faculty co-director) and Sarah Quinn (director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center).
Chief among the Rusk Center’s activities this past academic year was the “ESG and Corporate Sustainability: Global Perspectives on Regulatory Reform” conference held during October. Organized by Bruner, with the assistance of the Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law, this full-day symposium brought together subject matter experts to discuss capital market developments, corporate governance reform initiatives and efforts to constrain multinational businesses.
The school furthered its partnerships with the American Society of International Law and the American Branch of the International Law Association. The 2023 ABILA International Law Weekend was attended by eight law students, and two law students attended the 118th ASIL Annual Meeting.
Eighteen foreign-trained lawyers came to Athens for the 2023–24 academic year to earn a Master of Laws. These legal professionals hailed from 14 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. The class included experienced lawyers in a variety of practice areas, including a Fulbright awardee, a former Mandela Washington Fellow and a Ph.D. candidate.
The center’s events included visits from Rachel Galloway, the British consul general in Atlanta, and Georgetown Law Professor Cliff Sloan as well as a new events series highlighting International Education Week.
A legal Spanish curriculum was formalized for the first time this year. In the fall, 17 students enrolled in the one-credit Spanish I course designed by Professor Kristen Shepherd, Community Health Law Partnership Clinic staff attorney & adjunct instructor.
2024 Global Governance Summer School participants show their UGA pride.
UGA Law students remain excited about international experiences. In the spring of 2024, second-year student Madison Graham worked in the Supreme Allied Command Transformation Office of the Legal Advisor, a unit of NATO, located in Virginia. This past summer, 15 students secured Global Externships in public and private law placements in Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bermuda, Estonia, Germany, India, New Zealand, Romania and Tunisia. An additional two students completed semester-long externships in the fall 2023 at law firms in Germany. Thirteen law students and four Graduate Certificate in International Law students traveled to Belgium and the Netherlands to participate in the Global Governance Summer School, which is conducted in partnership with KU Leuven’s Centre for Global Governance Studies.
Through a new exchange program with O.P. Jindal Global University’s law school, the top-ranked school in India and South Asia, UGA received its first two Jindal students in the fall of 2023. UGA is working with two students who will study in Sonipat during the spring 2025 semester.
—Sarah Quinn
