The Founding

The Center for Transnational Legal Programs was founded in 2008 as a one-of-its-kind global partnership. Recognizing that 21st century lawyers needed to develop transnational perspectives and competencies, CTLS was designed to prepare students for careers that transcend the borders of their home countries.

The basic goal was to provide a unique program for students that afforded an opportunity to address sophisticated transnational legal issues from different perspectives. The founders believed that doing so would enrich the academic experience for students in a way not easily attainable at any of the participating schools: locating the program outside participants’ home countries would provide the intellectual and cultural advantages that result from adjusting to a new location where no single set of cultural or legal concepts would prevail.

Faculty of the participating universities would be provided with the opportunity to work closely with colleagues from law schools in other countries to facilitate cooperative research efforts that would be enriched by the contribution of their several perspectives.

CTLS is an evolving institution and will continue to evolve as global understanding and transnational law becomes embedded in the consciousness of the complex political entities that exist in our world.

Mission Statement

The Center for Transnational Legal Studies focuses on the law that governs interactions among different peoples of the world at all levels of human activity. The Center brings together faculty, students and practitioners from a broad diversity of legal cultures to study international, transnational and comparative law to further the following objectives:

1. Recognizing that globalization presents challenges concerning the integration and coexistence of diverse goals and values of the world, to study the multifaceted roles that law plays in such developments.
2. To promote the study of such law with the understanding that it must respect and accommodate the cultural, social and other norms of the different peoples of the world.
3. To equip students to be effective global lawyers in a wide variety of settings with deeper understanding of the role that they will play in the future of transnational law.
4. To advance theoretical and practical knowledge of the ways in which law serves many goals including distributive justice, human freedom and global well-being.