The School of Law offers more courses on Asian law than almost any other law school, and we are the only American law school to teach Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islands law. Our students may take general Asian comparative and international law courses or choose from more specialized courses on Chinese, Japanese or Pacific law. Every year we also offer special courses taught by Asian visitors; recent courses have included Administrative Law in Japan, Law in the Philippines, Introduction to Law in Taiwan, Korean Law, and Legal Reform and Legal Education in Japan. If you have Asian-Pacific research interests, you may work with faculty members in a directed study course, as well as write your second-year seminar paper on an Asian-Pacific topic.

You may also enroll in additional Asian-Pacific related courses in the University's graduate schools to supplement your law study. The choice of courses is unusually broad, allowing students to pursue advanced study in courses such as Japanese Financial Management, East Asia Now, Korean Politics Island Southeast Asia, Politics and Development in China, and International Conflict Resolution. We also encourage our students to maintain and improve their language skills during their years here.

To recognize student concentration in these areas, we award certificates of achievement in Pacific-Asian law. Students working towards a certificate may choose to focus on Asian and business-related topics or concentrate on Pacific Islands and Hawaiian legal issues. You may receive credit for an approved externship in Asia or the Pacific, as well as for related courses taken in other graduate programs in the University.

Our PALS courses for 2005-06 illustrate the unusual breadth and depth of our program in Pacific-Asian law.

We actively support students' participation in externships in Asia and the Pacific as part of their course of study. PALS students have gone to Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Cambodia, Belau and the Federated States of Micronesia, where they have worked for a wide range of organizations, including judges' offices, law firms, United Nations agencies and NGOs. Within the last few years, for example, PALS students have completed externships with law firms in Tokyo, Taipei and Bangkok as well as with human rights groups in Cambodia, Dharamsala and Hong Kong. You may do your externship during the summer, or with approval, spend a semester abroad in Pacific-Asia.

PALS students are eligible for specific scholarships, in addition to the general School of Law grants and awards. We award Pacific-Asian Scholarships to qualified law students who have demonstrated special interest, experience or expertise in Asia or the Pacific. You may be considered for one of these awards when you submit your law school application or after you have been admitted. In addition, the Kashiwagi Fund for Japanese Studies provides grants to students as well as faculty members to support the study of topics in Japanese law.

Our students, especially those enrolled in dual degree programs, may also be eligible to apply for East-West Center support. (www.eastwestcenter.org).

Law students may formally integrate their law school study with graduate work in other schools and colleges of the University and receive both the J.D. degree and another graduate degree or certificate. If you participate in this program, you may reduce the total degree requirements by receiving law school credit (up to ten credits) for approved graduate-level courses. Although you must apply to and be admitted to both programs, you can receive both degrees earlier than if you had enrolled in the two degree programs separately.

Approved programs include the Master of Arts in Asian Studies, which allows a concentration in one of the regions represented by the School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies: Japan, China, Korea, Southeast Asia or the Pacific. A new certificate program also enables PALS students to combine special language and interdisciplinary study with a professional degree. Or you may also enroll in the MBA program of the College of Business Administration, which is recognized for its international business education and offers MBAs with a focus on China or Japan.