The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law is seeking to become the first U.S. law school to open a branch campus internationally, offering students a dual degree with an Australian university that will allow them to be licensed in both countries. 

The University has asked the American Bar Association (ABA) for permission to partner with the University of Technology Sydney for the three-year joint degree. 

No U.S. school currently offers an ABA-accredited J.D. in a foreign country, according to William Adams, the ABA’s managing director for accreditation and legal education. The last school to try was denied by the ABA. 

University of Arizona Law Dean Marc Miller said that approval from the ABA could prompt others to think about expanding internationally. 

Under the proposal, law classes would be taught by Australian faculty at the Sydney campus with Arizona faculty developing the U.S. law components. Students would also have the option to take online courses offered by Arizona’s law school, Miller said. 

Initially, most students would likely be Australians seeking to practice in the United States, but they would be able to take U.S. bar exams without the further study in the states that is typically required.  

The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar is slated to consider Arizona’s application when it meets in November. Approving it then would enable the new program to launch in the fall of 2023. 

The ABA in May sent a fact finder to Sydney who submitted a report this month. That report does not include any recommendations but noted that everyone interviewed was “highly supportive of the program.” 

The ABA has not considered accrediting any international J.D. programs since 2012, when an application by the Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, China was denied. Opponents at the time told the ABA that accrediting law schools outside the U.S. would force graduates of American schools to contend with more competition for jobs. Those in favor of Peking University’s proposal cited the increasingly global nature of the profession. 

Miller said Arizona’s proposal has several key differences from Peking’s because it is in an English speaking, common-law country and involves a “first-tier” partner university. 

You can read more about this new program here. 

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