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Cross-Border Legal Studies Concentration

The School of Law is situated close to the Canadian border with the major business center of Toronto only two hours away.

We have a strong network of alumni based in Buffalo and in Ontario who engage in cross-border legal practice. These lawyers engage in the full range of cross-border work,  including trade, tax, immigration, business transactions, and related areas that take them across the border regularly.

The Cross-Border Legal Studies Concentration capitalizes on our location and our linkages on both sides of the border. We engage with cross-border legal issues both in action and in the classroom to impart skills that students can then apply to cross-border work anywhere in the world.

Contact

Director: Prof. Meredith Kolsky Lewis

On this page:

Apply

To apply for a Concentration or Curricular Program, please submit an online application.

Requirements


The Cross-Border Legal Studies Concentration requires 15 course credits. There is one required course, the Cross-Border Legal Studies capstone course (which counts towards the JD and LLM experiential learning requirements), in which students will work with practitioners on a range of cross-border legal issues.  In addition, students must take at least 12 elective credits selected from the list of eligible courses below.

Required Course

  •  Cross-Border Legal Studies capstone

Eligible Courses (not all courses offered every year)

  • Acquisition and Restructuring
  • Acquisition Transactions
  • Advanced Commercial Arbitration
  • Bankruptcy
  • Business Associations
  • Business Organizations
  • Business Basics for Lawyers
  • Business Immigration
  • Business Litigation
  • Civil Procedure or Contracts (Cross-Border Legal Studies LL.M. students only; neither of these courses count as eligible electives for J.D. students)
  • Commercial Arbitration
  • Commercial Contracts
  • Commercial Litigation
  • Commercial Transactions
  • Conflicts of Law
  • Copyright
  • Corporate Compliance Conduct
  • Cross-Border Dispute Resolution
  • Entrepreneurship Clinic
  • Estate and Gift Tax
  • Estate Planning
  • Externship/Internship (if related – by permission)
  • Federal Courts
  • Federal Income Taxation
  • Finance Transactions
  • Financial Analysis and Reporting
  • Financial Institutions
  • The Global Business Environment – Closing a Deal Across the U.S.-Canada Border
  • Gratuitous Transfers/Wills, Trusts and Estates/Future Interests
  • Immigration Law
  • Independent Study (approved on an individual basis)
  • Intellectual Property
  • International and Comparative Labor and Employment Law
  • International Arbitration or International Commercial Arbitration
  • International Business Transactions
  • International Corporate Transactions (Bridge Course held in Paris)
  • International Finance
  • International Finance Markets
  • International Trade Law
  • Intro to Compliance
  • IP Litigation
  • M&A Strategy and Financing
  • New Zealand: International Economic Law in Context (Bridge Course held in New Zealand)
  • Patent Law
  • Problems in International Finance
  • Public International Law
  • Refugee and Asylum Law
  • Secured Transactions
  • Start-up Law
  • Taxation of Business Entities
  • Tech and Innovation Management
  • Topics in Global Finance
  • Trademark and Unfair Competition
  • Trademark Law
  • U.S.-Canada Relationship