A Global Law School
From our LLM program for international lawyers—to global law and international human rights centers and concentrations. Discover what's next at Cincinnati Law.
For Global Lawyers.
At Cincinnati Law, we have a long history of engagement with issues related to international law.
In 1979, we became home to the first endowed institute at an American law school devoted to the study of international human rights—the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights. The Institute sends students around the globe to work on issues related to international human rights. You can find Morgan graduates in places like the State Department, the International Criminal Court, and numerous other organizations. Students also engage with scholarship through the Human Rights Quarterly.
In 2020, we launched the Cincinnati Center for the Global Practice of Law, which is designed to encourage, facilitate, and promote international engagement in all of the College’s activities.
We're also home to a tight-knit LLM Program in the U.S. Legal System. The LLM degree can be completed in as little as nine months, and with an 8:1 student-to-faculty ratio, our students benefit from increased, personalized support from professors. Graduates emerge fluent in the U.S. law system and ready to advance their careers.
Our tuition is one of the lowest for a U.S. LLM program, and we offer generous scholarships as well.
Faculty Research in International Law
Cincinnati Law faculty is committed to scholarship in international and comparative law. In 1979, we became home to the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights, the first endowed institute at an American law school devoted to the study of international human rights. Bert Lockwood, Director of the Urban Morgan Institute and Distinguished Service Professor of Law, is the editor of the Human Rights Quarterly, one of the most cited academic journals in the field of international human rights. He is also the Series Editor of the Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights.
Recent and forthcoming faculty publications in international and comparative law include:
Felix Chang, Associate Dean of Faculty and Research | Professor of Law | Co-Director, Corporate Law Center
- Felix Chang & Sunnie T. Rucker-Chang, Roma Rights and Civil Rights: A Transatlantic Comparison (Cambridge University Press 2020)
Jacob Katz Cogan, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs | Judge Joseph P. Kinneary Professor of Law | Faculty Director, Cincinnati Center for the Global Practice of Law
- International Organizations and Cities, in Research Handbook on International Law and Cities (Helmut Aust & Janne E. Nijman eds., Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming 2021)
- Global Health Governance by Information: Confronting the Costs of Cooperation (January 2021) Essay Symposium of the “Global Governance in the Age of COVID” research project, https://wccias.northwestern.edu/covid-19-research/global-health-governance-by-information-confronting-the-costs-of-cooperation.html
- A History of International Law in the Vernacular, 22 Journal of the History of International Law 205 (2020)
Meghan L. Morris, Assistant Professor of Law, College of Law | Affiliate Faculty, Department of Anthropology
- Ground Fictions: Soil, Property, and Markets in the Colombian Conflict, in Land Fictions: The Commodification of Land in City and Country (D. Asher Ghertner and Robert W. Lake, eds. forthcoming 2021)
- (ed., with Jessica Corredor Villamil) Pandemic Inequality: Civil Society Narratives from the Global South (2020). Bogotá: Center for the Study of Law, Justice and Society (Dejusticia). Spanish edition: La desigualdad pandémica: narrativas de la sociedad civil desde el Sur Global
- The Properties of Debt: Reciprocity, Precarity, and Social Obligation in Medellín, in Propiedad sobre la tierra en Colombia: viejos y nuevos dilemas sobre la distribución (Property over Land in Colombia: Old and New Dilemmas over Distribution) (Helena Alviar García and Tatiana Alfonso Sierra, eds., 2020)
LLM in U.S. Law
Design a course of study to advance your education on the way to earning your LLM in just nine months. Students can pursue a concentration in business law, apply for fellowships with the Ohio Innocence Project or Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights, and take advantage of numerous opportunities available to Cincinnati Law students.
Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights
Founded in 1979, the Urban Morgan Institute was the first endowed institute at an American law school devoted to international human rights law and has long been a world leader in legal education and human rights scholarship. Urban Morgan students serve as editors for the world’s leading human rights academic journal: Human Rights Quarterly.
Cincinnati Center for the Global Practice of Law
The University of Cincinnati College of Law has long been committed to global engagement. The Cincinnati Center for the Global Practice of Law is designed to encourage, facilitate, and promote international engagement in all of the College’s activities, including research, teaching, clinics, recruitment, and student activities. The Center connects students to opportunities that will help them develop the competencies needed to excel in the 21st century global legal marketplace.