The Stanford Program in International Legal Studies (SPILS) is a unique and rigorous program offering a select group of graduate students from outside the US the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary research that applies empirically based methods, adapted from the social sciences, economics and other disciplines, to analyze legal issues. Each of the graduate students accepted to the SPILS program must develop and execute a research study on a socio-legal topic of his or her choice, and report the results in a written 6-credit thesis. The research must involve one or more empirical methods of investigation. SPILS research projects address topics of concern to various nations or regions of the world, or to the international community as a whole. Examples of these empirical projects include analyses of particular legal cultures, legal reforms and policies. The researcher develops her or his work in close collaboration with Stanford faculty and student colleagues. The SPILS program also serves as preparation and screening for Stanford's JSD program, which is only open to a few SPILS students who are selected for admission each year. Like the SPILS program, the JSD program is interdisciplinary and requires an empirically based doctoral dissertation. Past SPILS fellows include specially qualified academics, researchers, lawyers, public officials, judges and other professionals trained in law outside the United States.
Questions concerning SPILS should be directed to graduate.admissions@law.stanford.edu.
SPILS considers applicants seeking to pursue significant research in one of a wide variety of interdisciplinary areas that reflect strong Law School faculty interest and expertise, including the following areas of concentration:
SPILS fellows must complete a a minimum of 35 units of study during the academic year, including the required 6 credits of thesis writing in the spring quarter, and are required to be in residence for one academic year (nine months).
Each SPILS fellow must complete an intensive empirical research project designed to result in a significant contribution to the scholarly literature or policy debate in his or her area of concentration. Fellows receive intensive faculty advising on the development of their research projects throughout the academic year. Interdisciplinary research workshop provide fellows with a framework within which to develop their projects and receive useful feedback from faculty and international colleagues. Each fellow must give a public presentation of his or her SPILS research following its completion.
SPILS fellows are required to take the following core program courses:
In addition to the required SPILS seminars and workshops and the research for their theses (6 Units, Spring), SPILS candidates take other advanced courses or seminars offered by Stanford Law School or by Stanford University's other graduate departments or professional schools. Fellows select these courses to form a coherent program related to their areas of concentration and research projects. View the full list of courses offered by Stanford Law School.
Stanford Law School has an exceptionally strong faculty in interdisciplinary legal studies, including law and society, law and economics, law and development, law and technology, and critical approaches to legal reform. SPILS fellows take courses from among those offered by the Law School's faculty according to their interests and research needs. Each SPILS fellow will conduct his or her research in close collaboration with two advisors: the SPILS teaching fellow and a faculty advisor with substantive expertise in the SPILS fellow's relevant field of research, chosen from among the entire Law School faculty.
For example, Professor Lawrence Friedman has recently advised fellows from Germany, Mexico, Spain, and Taiwan on a wide range of research projects related to the role of lawyers and judges in a changing society; Professor Thomas Heller has advised SPILS fellows on topics ranging from electric power industry deregulation in Peru, Japanese tax reform, European Union treaty-making powers, sustainable shrimp farming in Thailand, and entrepreneurship in Chile; Professor Lawrence Lessig has advised SPILS fellows from Germany, Romania, Chile and Kenya on theses related to information technology access and regulation; Professor Paul Goldstein has worked with fellows from Russia, Kenya, China and India on issues related to intellectual property law reform; Professor Deborah Hensler recently advised a Venezuelan SPILS fellow investigating informal dispute resolution processes in his country, and Professor Jeff Strnad recently advised SPILS fellows on theses concerning fiscal decentralization in Japan and tax competition legislation in Latin America.
Lawrence M. Friedman, Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law and Co-Chair, Stanford Program in International Legal Studies.
Principal subjects: law and society; trusts and estates; American legal history; history of criminal justice.
Thomas C. Heller, Lewis Talbot and Nadine Hearn Shelton Professor of International Legal Studies and Co-Chair of the Stanford Program in International Legal Studies.
Principal subjects: international law and political economy; legal theory; environmental law.
Moria Paz, SPILS Teaching Fellow
SPILS fellows may also participate in research workshops, seminars, lecture series, and discussion groups with faculty, graduate students, and visiting scholars at the University's other schools and research institutes. Of particular interest are programs offered by the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (including the Asia Pacific Research Center, the Center for International Security and Cooperation, the Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, and the Center for Environmental Science and Policy), Stanford's area studies centers and regional research institutes (including the Center for African Studies, the Center for East Asian Studies, the Center for Latin American Studies, and the Center for Russian and East European Studies), the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and the Hoover Institution.