Study Abroad through Another Law School

Students may take up to twelve hours at an ABA-approved program of foreign law study. Students enroll for a semester or summer abroad. Students must obtain permission from the foreign host school; a faculty contact at the host school must be provided; and the curriculum and proposed course of study must be approved by the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs. While international course work is generally elective in nature, the perspective requirement may be met through international course work.

Those courses in which a student receives a AC@ or above will be counted as APass,@ and those courses in which a student receives a AC-“ or below will not be awarded credit.

Study Abroad at our Partner Institutions

The faculty of the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law (the Law School) reaffirms that study of international law, as well as study of the legal systems and cultures of other countries, contributes to and enhances students’ legal education. The Law School has developed relationships with several foreign law schools and law faculties and has regularly exchanged faculty members with those schools, and now seeks to include students in these exchanges. The Law School thus intends to allow its students to participate in available educational opportunities at foreign institutions which will enhance the students’ legal educations, subject to the following criteria:

1. Students in good standing at the Law School may spend no more than two semesters of study at any foreign institution after completion of their first year of study;
2. A proposed course of foreign study must be approved in advance by the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, and must comply with the ABA Criteria for Student Study at a Foreign Institute (the ABA Criteria);
3. Students may earn no more than 30 credit hours towards the J.D. degree outside the Law School. This includes credit hours from foreign institutions, other ABA-approved law schools as a visiting student, and graduate-level courses taken outside the Law School;
4. In order to count credit hours earned under this rule toward the J.D. degree, students must earn grades of the equivalent of “C” or higher. Credit hours will be applied towards the J.D. degree on a pass-fail basis, and grades earned will not be reflected in a student’s GPA or class rank.
5. No more than six (6) students may undertake study at any particular foreign institution within the three-year period including the current academic year and the two previous academic years;
6. A full-time faculty member at the Law School familiar with the course of study at the foreign institution must act as sponsor of the student’s foreign study;
7. Courses taken at a foreign institution may, in appropriate circumstances and with the approval of the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, satisfy the student’s Perspective Course requirement. They may not satisfy the student’s Upper Division Writing Requirement or other specific graduation requirements of the School of Law;
8. Credit will be given only for approved academic coursework at foreign institutions, and not for foreign externships;
9. Ordinarily, foreign courses of study will only be approved at institutions with which the Law School has an existing working relationship;
10. Student study at foreign institutions must comply with all other rules promulgated from time to time by the Law School administration for purposes of compliance with the ABA Criteria.