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PRESS RELEASE
For more information, please contact: Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251
Chicago-Kent College of Law and Office of the Judiciary of Thailand establish graduate law program
CHICAGO--March 13, 2009--Chicago-Kent College of Law and the Office of the Judiciary of Thailand recently signed an agreement to establish a special graduate study program for Thai judges. The agreement was initialed February 19 in Chicago by Viruch Limbichai, president of the Supreme Court of Thailand, and Dean Harold J. Krent of Chicago-Kent.
Dean Harold J. Krent with Viruch Limbichai, president of the Supreme Court of Thailand (right)
The signing was witnessed by a delegation of prominent Thai officials that included Sirichai Jiraboonsri, presiding justice of the Supreme Court; Phinij Susaoraj, secretary-general of the Office of the Judiciary; Vichai Ariyanuntaka, secretary-general of the Office of the President of the Supreme Court; Sarawut Benjakul, deputy secretary-general of the Office of the Judiciary; and Nuttagrit Sukon, director of the Office of Finance. Chicago-Kent was also represented by Professor Susan J. Adams and Lydia Lazar, assistant dean for international law and policy development.
Under the terms of the agreement with the Office of the Judiciary, Chicago-Kent faculty will go to Thailand to teach a four-course, graduate-level program for judges. Upon successful completion of the program, judges will be eligible to earn a master of laws (LL.M.) in international and comparative law degree from Chicago-Kent by completing an additional semester of course work in the United States. Twenty-seven judges have enrolled in the inaugural program. Additional programs are planned for other locations in Thailand.
The judges will complete their first semester of work in Bangkok, where they will take four courses: Introduction to Legal Research and Writing, Introduction to the American Legal System, Business Contracts, and International Commercial Arbitration. Each course will be taught in English by Chicago-Kent faculty members over a two-week period, with three to four hours of intensive study per day.
Upon successful completion of the course work, judges will have earned credits toward the 24 needed to earn the LL.M. degree from Chicago-Kent. After approval by a faculty admissions committee, judges will begin their second semester in the United States at Chicago-Kent.
The agreement with the Office of the Judiciary extends Chicago-Kent’s activities in Thailand. For the past three years, the law school has offered a similar program in collaboration with Sripatum University in Bangkok. In addition, nearly two dozen Chicago-Kent alumni currently live in Thailand.
Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, a private, Ph.D.-granting institution with programs in engineering, psychology, architecture, business, design and law.
Chicago-Kent also offers special LL.M. programs and overseas training programs in Prishtina, Kosovo; Beijing and Shanghai, China; Gdansk and Wroclaw, Poland; and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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