LL.M. in Asian Law, Global Business Law, or Sustainable International Development Law
Legal practice and legal policy today are interdisciplinary and global. Lawyers need a sophisticated understanding of legal and regulatory systems beyond their own in order to advise and lead in a complex world of global challenges. We educate lawyers for this changing world.
The LL.M. programs in Asian and Comparative Law, Global Business Law, and General Comparative Law provides advanced specialist courses for lawyers and policy makers who are pursuing careers in Asian, Islamic, international commercial or development law. The programs focuses on global and cross-jurisdictional issues in international governance, institution-building, regulation, commercial transactions, and sustainability.
University of Washington Law School classes are uniquely designed to team J.D. and LL.M. and Ph.D. students and Visiting Scholars in the same classroom and often in teams working on practical problems. The unique mix of U.S. and international LL.M. students in one program also provides a valuable reciprocal learning experience.
We expect many of our students to sit for the New York or California Bar as part of their preparation for the next stage of their careers. We team with a commercial provider of Bar preparation courses, so that students may attend bar preparation classes on the UW campus.
This LL.M. program offers several tracks in which students can customize their course of study and career path. Choose from one of the following tracks:
This track is for lawyers who wish to be recognized as truly expert in the legal
systems and cultures of China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia or Central Asia. It is a
challenging program that builds professional competence in the substantive laws of one or more
Asian jurisdictions. Students complete a sequence of Asian and comparative law courses and legal
research projects. After graduation they pursue legal careers in Asia, Europe or in the United States,
focusing on Asia-related transnational work. Many graduates pursue policy-related careers or
become legal academics.
Students in this track focus on U.S. business law and practice-oriented courses that simulate global
transactions. The law school provides a large selection of business law courses, including international contracting,
international trade, and comparative corporate governance. Graduates from this track pursue legal careers as global
business lawyers, entrepreneurs or government lawyers responsible for
economic policy and regulation.
Poverty, hunger, overpopulation, transitional political systems and resource distribution
are a few of the most basic issues confronting the world today. Many of them unfold
amidst a complex web of looming national, comparative, and international legal problems.
The Sustainable International Development Law track (formerly the Sustainable International
Development law LL.M.) is the first graduate program at a U.S. law school to focus
on international development law. It is designed for lawyers who seek to develop
a career in the many intersecting fields of sustainability and international development.
The core courses for this track focus a legal lens on contemporary issues of sustainability
such as climate change, income redistribution (including land reform), population
limitation, food production, environmental damage and natural or man-made constraints
on growth. Courses also examine the theory and practice of donor-assisted rule-of-law
work in different regions. There is growing need for persons with these skills in
foreign-government ministries, in agencies such as the Agency for International
Development, the World Bank, and the United Nations, on legislative staffs, and
in nongovernmental organizations (both those oriented to policy and those implementing
projects in the field) and elsewhere in the private sector.
The general law track is a customizable course of study for students whose interest areas do not
entirely fit into the above tracks. After fulfilling the core requirements common to all three tracks,
students take available elective courses within the Law School. However, the course selection must include
a course with substantial coverage of one or more foreign legal systems or international law.