Being launched in April 2022 under the Department of International Business Law, the Global Program gives students an opportunity to hone their legal knowledge and objective thinking through learning a legal approach to international business disputes, negotiation strategies and effective communication techniques.

Since all of the specialized courses in the program are provided in English, students can take all of the courses required for the degree in English only. (Students may also take courses offered in Japanese if they wish to.) We are proud of the wide range and diversity of the law courses offered in English in the program, which makes the program the one and only English language-based law degree program in Japan.

Our pioneering English program is recognized with a generous endowment from the Suenobu Foundation, thanks to which we have established the Suenobu International Business Law course.

Learning in a truly international environment with students from different countries

When it comes to law courses offered in English, the Department of International Business Law had actually already been offering such courses. However, the situation could sometimes be slightly awkward or artificial, when the professor and all of the students were Japanese, but the classroom language was English. More fundamentally, having only Japanese students (or students from any single country, for that matter) in classes was not ideal to equip them with the legal knowledge, objective thinking skills, alongwith international perspectives, they need for an international business context. Therefore, the basic idea of the Global Program is to offer an enough number and variety of courses so that the classroom environment becomes closer to being a microcosm of an international business setting.
Answering the interview for the St. Paul’s Alumni News Papers No. 458, May 2022, Professor Takahashi explains more about the Global Program, here.

Some of the courses offered in the program:

• For the first year and a half after enrollment, students take courses, such as Contracts, Property and Torts to gain the basic legal knowledge necessary to create the foundation for further legal studies.
  Example topics to be covered: basic ideas as to the ways of preventing and resolving international business disputes through negotiations, basic rules for contracts (e.g., in the case where company X imported luxury brand products, whether X should be entitled to claim for damages against whom if the products are damaged in a shipping accident).
• From the second year, students start taking more specialized courses, such as Corporate Law and International Business Law, which require students to apply what they have learned in the previous year and to continue to build up their legal knowledge.
• Students also cultivate comparative perspectives through comparing Japanese law with laws of other countries and regions in the courses such as Introduction to Legal Studies, Law and Society in Japan (for first year students), and Anglo-American Law and Comparative Constitutional Law (for students of the second year and above). Taking these courses enables students not only to understand the Japanese law and legal system and the other countries’ counterparts, but also to develop an international perspective through comparing laws of different countries and regions.
  Example topics to be covered: Differences between Japanese and American laws, and legal approaches taken by different countries to deal with specific problems that occur on the frontlines of international business (e.g., labor disputes, environmental issues and intellectual property disputes).
• In other courses such as Negotiation Basics and Legal Writing, students develop their practical communication skills and the ability to logically express their opinions, which will be useful in the international arena.
• For the full list of specialized courses offered in the Global Program, click here.

We are aiming to educate a new generation of individuals who play an active part in the global world with a deep understanding of societies and cultures of Japan and other countries from both local and international perspectives.

* For Japanese students, see the Japanese website of the Global Program to find out the admission procedure

In April 2022, Rikkyo College of Law and Politics launched a new Global Program within the Department of International Business Law. This is an international program that offers legal education in English.
This site provides guidance and information on the new program, including introductions to faculty and the curriculum.
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Follow us on the Department of International Business Law Youtube channel for more video updates and information about the Global Program.