UCLA International law reputation

[SCgrad]

Their website says they are the number one Int. Law program in the West, but that is their website.  I saw somewhere a list of the top Int. Law Schools, and it was something like 15 schools not in the west (Most western was U of Texas).  Can someone tell me what is special about their program if anything.  Is this just bull?  My particular interest is more on the private side, and in Japan (as I speak Japanese).  If they suck, are their any schools in the West or Southwest that are good in Int. Law (When I say good, I don't mean top 10 good, but at least maybe top 25 or 30)?

[Lucky77]

USC, Stanford, Berkeley are all pretty good too. I'd have to say Berkeley of all these schools, just based on their poli sci and international economics reputations.

[bruin]

US news ranking, basically. If I correctly recall, UCLA and Boalt were the top west coast law schools-intl programs.

The reputation of other departments at the universities has nothing to do with the rankings, as these departments rarely interact in a menaingful way.

[nubova]

The reputation at UCLA for any program is no different than the overall school's reputation. UCLA is not the best in anything. No firm is going to hire someone from UCLA over Harvard or Yale merely because a magazine ranks it number 1 in a specialty. The only ranking that really counts is the general US news ranking. The average general ranking of the past 5 years is the best way to get a sense of what the school's reputation is like in the market. This goes for all specialty rankings. If BC is the best school by USNews for International Law as many say, then why do Harvard grads keep getting hiring for international law positions? The answer is that the specialty rankings are really just there for magazine sales. I don't mean to come down harsh, but this is just the way it is. 

 

[SCgrad]

The reputation at UCLA for any program is no different than the overall school's reputation. UCLA is not the best in anything. No firm is going to hire someone from UCLA over Harvard or Yale merely because a magazine ranks it number 1 in a specialty. The only ranking that really counts is the general US news ranking. The average general ranking of the past 5 years is the best way to get a sense of what the school's reputation is like in the market. This goes for all specialty rankings. If BC is the best school by USNews for International Law as many say, then why do Harvard grads keep getting hiring for international law positions? The answer is that the specialty rankings are really just there for magazine sales. I don't mean to come down harsh, but this is just the way it is. 

 

Who says BC is the best for Int. Law.  Maybe BC.

[nubova]

Most publications due to their international programs, but the point was that specialty rankings dont matter anyways. I was using it ironically.

[bruin]

Specitally rankings may matter when comparing schools that are ranked similarly overall. ie Don't pick Vermont over BC because of Vermont's evironmental law ranking, but when comparing Vermont to Syracuse maybe... Or comparing BC and GW for intl law.

[SCgrad]

Most publications due to their international programs, but the point was that specialty rankings dont matter anyways. I was using it ironically.

I've looked and haven't seen that.  But I will take your irony anyway.  I agree with Bruin.  If youre going to look at the rankings at all, you should look at all of them.  Why not get as much input as possible before making a decision? 

[Afro]

I heard that BC was the first american law school to compete in the EU moot court comp in England and was the best american team there. That and the ICC program are pretty impressive. It also just started some international law and justice program that is supposed to be an up and growing organzation with some great scholars.

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/rvp/pubaf/chronicle/v14/o6/center.html

But I am skeptical that there is any weight to international law programs. Isn't that what an LLM is for? I would go to Harvard over BC if I wanted to do Int Law anyways, but if I didn't get a T14, it seems to be a pretty good option. I also heard that Miami has a good Int program

[SCgrad]

There is much to do with international law in the US, LLMs are for people who want the practice in another country, although they are not always necessary.