Post Date: February 21, 2007

With the goal of increasing the international opportunities available to their students, Harvard Law School and The University of Sydney in Australia have established a Student Exchange Program. Beginning in July 2007, selected HLS J.D. candidates will be able to spend a semester in Sydney. An equal number of selected Australian students in the final year of their undergraduate law degree will come to Cambridge for a semester at HLS.

“We’re delighted to conclude this agreement with the University of Sydney,” said Bill Alford ’77, vice dean for the Graduate Program and International Legal Studies. “As we’ve seen from the visits here of Dean Ronald McCallum and professors Helen Irving, Mary Crock, and Richard Vann, Sydney is blessed with superb teachers.”

The exchange program with the University of Sydney will allow students to gain invaluable insights into a different legal system. It is expected that the collaboration will also extend to professors, who will be able to pursue joint research and teaching projects.

“In this globalized world, student exchanges of this nature provide invaluable opportunities,” said Sydney University’s law dean, Professor Ron McCallum. “They lead to broader understandings of the law, foster international friendships, and build transnational networks of students and scholars.”

Sydney Law School is one of the oldest law schools in Australia and is noted for its excellence in both scholarship and teaching. It is renowned for its offerings in a range of areas, including constitutional law, labor law, taxation, corporate law, environmental law and health law.

Situated adjacent to the Supreme Court building in the center of Sydney’s legal district, the University of Sydney Law School plays a key role in the study and practice of law in Australia.

The Sydney exchange program is one of a number of linkages HLS has established with distinguished schools around the world. Through these exchanges and through the independent semester abroad program, HLS students have been able to spend time in Chile, China, Ghana, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, among other locales.

For additional information regarding Harvard Law School’s Study Abroad Program, please visit the program site.