ND Law announces new Hamburg Honor Scholars Program, launches partnership with Bucerius Law School
In an exciting new development for Notre Dame Law School’s Global Lawyering Initiative, Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law G. Marcus Cole has announced a new summer program for law students — the Hamburg Honor Scholars Program — and an associated partnership with Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany.
“Bucerius Law School, the first private law school in Germany, is widely recognized as the very best law school in Germany, and among the best law schools in the world,” Dean Cole said. “Students in Germany choose to pay tuition at Bucerius rather than attend other universities for free, largely out of recognition of the expanded opportunities afforded by the elite training at Bucerius.”
Cole started teaching at Bucerius as a visiting professor in 2006, and has done so repeatedly for several years. “The students and faculty at Bucerius will provide our own students — both our Hamburg Honor Scholars as well as our students who host Bucerius students here at Notre Dame — with a first-class learning experience. Our Notre Dame Law research faculty will have a unique opportunity to collaborate with Europe’s brightest legal talent on key issues common to our linked societies, cultures, and economies. I am delighted that Notre Dame Law School will be able to forge this partnership with a top peer institution.”
Professor Dr. Katharina Boele-Woelki, the dean of Bucerius Law School, said, “As we examine the law, challenge our assumptions and seek to better understand questions facing the legal profession, we must bring together diverse perspectives and experiences. To be successful in this endeavor, we rely upon the strength of our international partners and are grateful to establish this academic cooperation with the University of Notre Dame. We look forward to welcoming students and scholars to our campus, expanding our work with Dean Cole and engaging with his esteemed colleagues in the months and years ahead.”
Under the Hamburg Honor Scholars Program, Notre Dame Law students will have the opportunity to study or work in an internship setting in Hamburg for a summer. Students selected for the program will be offered stipends in support of their work and study, and will also receive financial support for their travel and accommodation. The study placements will allow students to enroll in one of Bucerius Law School’s prestigious summer programs. The internship placements will provide Notre Dame Law students with the opportunity to intern at a leading Hamburg law firm with a transnational commercial law practice. Further details on the Hamburg Honor Scholars Program and a call for applications will be issued to students in due course.
The Hamburg Honor Scholars Program is just the latest in a growing and already unparalleled set of study abroad opportunities afforded to Notre Dame Law School students, including the Dublin Honor Scholars Program launched last year, and the newly enhanced London Law Program.
In conjunction with the Hamburg Honor Scholars Program, Dean Cole also announced the Law School has signed an agreement with Bucerius Law School that will provide a rich array of other learning and research opportunities for students and faculty. Under the agreement, the Law School will receive visiting students and faculty from Bucerius. Visiting faculty will teach short courses open to all Notre Dame Law students, enriching existing course offerings. Visiting students will join Notre Dame Law students and our community for a semester. In turn, Notre Dame Law School will send faculty and interested students to Bucerius for study and research.
The partnership also supports collaborative research between Notre Dame and Bucerius faculty. The first collaboration and faculty exchange will be led by Associate Dean Paul Miller for Notre Dame and Professor Thilo Kuntz for Bucerius. Miller and Kuntz are planning a conference on methodology in private law theory that draws on the expertise of several internationally recognized civil and common law private law scholars at Notre Dame and Bucerius, including those affiliated with the Notre Dame Program on Private Law. The conference will be held in Hamburg when circumstances permit. Future collaboration will be facilitated between other Notre Dame and Bucerius faculty with common research interests.
Commenting on the new partnership with Bucerius and his planned work with Professor Kuntz, Dean Miller said: “We’re delighted and tremendously excited by this new agreement between Notre Dame Law School and Bucerius Law School. We think that it holds great promise for enriching the education and research of students and faculty at both law schools. I am especially excited to get to work with Professor Kuntz. He’s an exceptional scholar and I feel truly fortunate to have the chance to work with him.”
Kuntz said, “This is a landmark agreement, crossing countries, legal systems and different traditions of engaging with the law. It not only establishes what many others have, a student and faculty exchange program, but also provides a platform for substantive collaboration in legal scholarship. This puts our law schools far ahead of the curve. I’ve known Dean Miller and his work for a couple of years now. It is a privilege and my personal pleasure to work with one of the leading scholars of fiduciary and private law.”
Originally published by at law.nd.edu on October 09, 2020.