From One Cambridge to Another

A handful of Harvard Law School (HLS) students will soon have the opportunity to earn simultaneously a degree from another university in Cambridge—Cambridge, England, that is.

Starting next fall, up to six students who have completed two years at HLS will work toward Master of Law (LL.M) degrees at the University of Cambridge for one year and then return to Harvard for one semester to complete their J.D. degrees.

“Our students will be able to apply to spend time at Cambridge before they will have completed their first law degree,” said William P. Alford, HLS vice dean for the graduate program and international studies and Stimson Professor of Law. “Cambridge has never really done anything like that with an American university.”

Alford said that he and Caspersen Professor of Law Howell E. Jackson, who helped to organize the program, chose the University of Cambridge because “it has enormous strengths,” particularly in international law.

Applications from HLS students interested in the program are due by Dec. 1, and the school will nominate a group of students for the six spots. Those students will then have to submit an application to Cambridge and be accepted to enter the joint program.

While studying in England, students will receive a semester’s worth of credit at HLS, allowing them to earn two degrees in three-and-a-half years rather than four.

Alford said Harvard administrators embraced the program idea as part of University President Lawrence H. Summers’ emphasis on internationalization and globalization.

“The law school administration and the central administration were all very supportive,” Alford said.

The new program is not the law school’s first venture into overseas education, as it currently allows up to 10 students to receive one semester of Harvard credit for participating in an approved study abroad program during either semester of their second year or the first semester of their third year.

Alford said students are currently studying in Ghana, the Netherlands and Spain, among other places.

Studying abroad is valuable because it allows students to understand better America’s own approach to the law by immersing them in countries with different approaches, Alford explained.

“There’s no better way to learn about one’s own legal system and its assumptions and the values that underlie it than by looking at other legal systems,” Alford said.

HLS student Kevin J. Brogan praised the law school for developing the program, saying it would prepare students to enter the legal world with more informed views about how law is practiced in other parts of the world.

“As technology develops at this rapid pace, it becomes more and more essential for any successful professional to have an international perspective,” Brogan wrote in an e-mail. “The opportunity to study abroad will give students the better developed world-view they will need when they move beyond the law school.”

Brogan added that the LL.M degree offered at the University of Cambridge is “becoming a very attractive degree in private practice, particularly in areas such as taxation, finance and intellectual property.”

Jamie L. Bartholomew, a first-year at HLS, said she was intersted in applying. “Studying abroad enables you to immerse yourself in a different culture in a way that is impossible as a tourist,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Amidst the excitement about the new program, however, Brogan said, “There seems to be some concern that because HLS can only nominate six students it may become ultra-competitive and many interested students may not be have the opportunity” to participate.

Alford said HLS might have to rank its candidates if more than six apply.