Tel Aviv University Int’l LL.M. program seeks top students worldwide – Sponsored Content
Laila Wenzlaff, an aspiring German lawyer who had studied at the University of Heidelberg, wanted to get into public international law. Indian Shardool Kulkarni, a litigant in the Bombay High Court, hoped to gain a real education beyond textbooks and academia.
Wenzlaff and Kulkarni, both 25, turned to the Parasol Foundation International Master of Laws Program at the Buchmann Law School of Tel Aviv University—an innovative program created in 2013 that now offers more than 50 courses, seminars and workshops taught entirely in English.
“Our program is unique,” said Orit Gontmaher, Admissions Manager. “We have a wide range of courses that international students have the opportunity to take. They can take a general track or choose to specialize in international human rights, law and technology, or business and law.
The 10-month program, which requires a law degree and proficiency in English, “explores contemporary legal challenges arising from processes of globalization, technological innovation and entrepreneurial dynamism, both local and global” , says its website.
The Law and Technology stream focuses on the legal aspects of big data, artificial intelligence, and Startup Nation, with courses in intellectual property rights, cybersecurity, and related issues.
The business law course, for its part, covers the fundamentals of business strategy intended for a legal public. Course curricula are drawn from business law as well as MBA programs from overseas top schools, with courses on startup finance and governance, shareholder activism, competition law issues and negotiations in the technology industry.
This year’s cohort of seventeen students includes future lawyers from Brazil, Ethiopia, Germany, India, the United States and beyond. Of the seventeen, six are on the international human rights track.
Some students have prior ties to the Jewish state, others do not. In Wenzlaff’s case, her father had studied in Israel and her mother had volunteered as an au pair years ago.
“We had so many interesting classes, on subjects like international armed conflict, legal theory and philosophy,” she said. “We have, for example, a course on global governance and human rights. It is about the development of international law and its emergence.
On March 21, law professor Hila Shamir will host a online seminar titled “Human Trafficking: Combating a Global Phenomenon”. The panel, which is free and open to all students interested in the LL.M. program as well as those who have already completed a law degree – is a good example of how the program incorporates current affairs as well as theory. .
“We had many additional sessions on the conflict in Ukraine,” Wenzlaff said, adding that a big topic now is Ukraine’s genocide complaint against Russia before the International Court of Justice. “Many professors have changed their schedules to talk about this war and its legal implications. That’s being a lawyer, not just reading books, but enforcing the law.
Wenzlaff, who has already been in Israel for six months, plans to stay five more months. She particularly enjoys the educational outings that are part of the curriculum. In February, the group took a two-day adventure through Israel’s coastal north, exploring an Arab-Israeli fishing village, one of Israel’s largest kibbutz, and the national park and nature reserve of Arbel. And in a few weeks, the group is planning another trip, this one to Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Syria.
Kulkarni, a 2019 graduate of the University of Mumbai’s five-year law program, said he heard about the LL.M. from the Parasol Foundation. program from a friend in India who did the program.
“My main interest has always been constitutional law and human rights, but I didn’t want to have just a theoretical, purely academic perspective,” Kulkarni said. “Tel Aviv University has quite a reputation internationally, but what really made me choose this program was that, unlike others, this one incorporates perspectives from legal theory, law Comparative Constitutional and Legal History, which you don’t commonly find in LL.M programs.”
To register for the program, please Click here. The deadline for applications is March 31.