International Legal Studies Expands

An expanded program of international legal studies is now under way at the Law School, associate dean David F. Cavers said yesterday. He disclosed that earlier plans for the establishment of a World School of Law at the University are still in the blueprint stage for lack of funds.

This year's Law School course catalogue lists fourteen courses in the international area--nearly twice as many as were given last year. They are subdivided into three broad classifications: Legal Problems of World Order, Legal Problems of the World Economy, and the Comparison of Legal Systems.

Sixty-nine students from twenty six foreign countries are enrolled in the Law School this year. Forty-three of them are graduates of foreign law schools. Several faculty members are conducting this enlarged program.

Cavers pointed out that most lawyers receive their training only in the legal system of their own country, and thus find themselves handicapped seriously when handling legal problems on the international level. The lack of a common framework can only be remedied by an intensive program of study, he said.

Important Projects

Members of the Law School's faculty are currently engaged in planning several important international projects. Two of the more vital ones are a study of world tax laws which would be carried out in co-operation with the U.N.'s Fiscal Division, and a joint program of comparative law research with Israel's Ministry of Justice to help that country develop a new legal code.

Cost Too Great

The planned set-up for a World School of Law at Harvard, Cavers said, would require at least $5,000,000 for its fulfillment. The project was originally outlined in a 1947 report by the Law School's Committee on International Legal Studies, and called for a new, autonomous school that would function as a Law School adjunct.

The report asked for a basic one-year program, open to all qualified law school graduates from here or abroad, that would emphasize problems of world order and international socio-economic development. "The world's main legal system," the report stated, "would be studied not merely as ends in themselves but as means to the larger end of mutual understanding and co-operation."