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Applications must be submitted by April 1, 2025.
To successfully apply to the Program, you must:
Please note:
The files names for all documents uploaded in our application portal should only contain letters and numbers (no spaces). The system will reject file names with special characters.
All application materials should be submitted in English. If materials are submitted with another language, please provide a certified translated copy.
If you would like to make changes to your application after you have submitted it, please contact us at paris.law@cornell.edu.
The Cornell-Paris 1 Summer Institute, which is open to both United States and international applicants, is a unique academic experience that will expand your understanding of a special area of law. The program emphasizes the study of international law and institutions, as well as U.S. and other legal systems in a comparative context. The program also provides a unique opportunity for career advancement, personal growth and development, and networking on a global level.
Students attend classes at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, first in the Panthéon building and then the Lourcine Centre, near the beautiful Jardin du Luxembourg and in the vibrant Quartier Latin, the Paris home of university students for almost a thousand years.
Each year’s program sponsors a private guided tour. In the past, students have visited the Palais de Justice (the site of France’s highest court in the ordinary court system), the Conseil d’État (the “supreme court” in the French administrative court system), the French National Assembly, the French Senate, and the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Court of Arbitration in Paris.
The Cornell-Paris 1 Summer Institute is open to:
Junior and senior undergraduate students are welcome to apply through this portal with our partners in Cornell’s Office of Global Learning.
If you feel that you don’t fall into the above categories but are still interested in the program, please reach out to paris.law@cornell.edu to discuss if the program is an option for you.
Are you interested in the Cornell-Paris 1 Summer Institute but can’t participate in this year’s program?
Fill out the info at the survey linked here, and we will notify you once the application is up for the next cycle!
International students: If you would like to determine credit equivalence, please reach out to your home institution’s Registrar’s Office.
The following courses are confirmed for the Summer 2025 program.
Introduction to the Laws of Europe (Required Orientation Lectures) (Non-credit, mandatory) – Taught by Professor Mitchel Lasser:
These lectures examine the origins and development of the national legal systems of Europe, viewed in relation to their common law equivalents. They also present the key features of the European Union and of the European Court of Human Rights. These lectures do not carry separate credit, but attendance by all enrolled students is required, as part of the regular courses.
Comparative Legal Studies (1 credit) – Taught by Professor Mitchel Lasser:
This course introduces students to the study of foreign legal systems. It will provide a broad overview of the institutional and conceptual organization of “civil law” legal systems, comparing them to their “common law” equivalents in the United States. Substantively, the course will focus on the different approaches to private law and procedure, criminal procedure, administrative law and constitutional law that characterize most contemporary European civil law jurisdictions. Methodologically, the course will teach the most important approaches for engaging in comparative legal analysis, so that students will be in a position to practice and critique them effectively.
Comparative EU and US Regulation: AI, Climate Change, and Antitrust (1 credit) – Taught by Professor Jed Stiglitz:
Artificial intelligence, climate change and antitrust present three of the most pressing regulatory challenges facing both the European Union and the United States. This course examines these three regulatory areas from a comparative perspective. We will study the policy challenges, compare the EU and US laws and institutions available to respond to the challenges, and assess the policy responses of those laws and institutions. This course will equip you with an understanding of today’s complex regulatory problems and the ability to analyze and critique EU and US regulatory approaches.
Corporate Governance: Corporate Acquisitions and Capital Structure (1 credit) – Taught by Professor Charles Whitehead:
Corporate governance has time and again been the subject of extensive scrutiny. This course will focus on the U.S. approach to corporate governance, control, and accountability, in particular in two contexts—corporate acquisitions (hostile and friendly) and capital structure. Both acquisitions and capital structure provide a means to improve corporate governance. A principal focus will be on large, publicly-traded corporations, in particular, the potentially conflicting interests that the corporate form must mediate. The problems faced by businesses around the globe – raising and deploying capital, allocating rights and responsibilities among owners and managers, and combining two or more businesses, to name just a few – are much the same; but the solutions developed in different legal systems can be different. I will focus principally on the U.S. approach, but in the process, I expect to touch on some of the other solutions to these problems. Topics to be covered include basic fiduciary obligations, shareholder voting rights, the impact of capital structure on corporate governance, and corporate control transactions.
Comparative Property Law (1 credit) – Taught by Professor Deborah Dinner:
Property law governs the control and use of resources. This course investigates what it means to “own” things, how property is created, and what kinds of resources can be designated as property. We will sample some of the most important legal doctrines governing resources in land, as well as environmental resources and human bodies. Last, we will compare alternatives to private property, such as common property and public property. This course applies a comparative lens to property law, focusing on the U.S. common law and exploring, too, various civil law and indigenous legal regimes.
9:00 am – 10:30 am: Corporate Governance: Corporate Acquisitions and Capital Structure (Whitehead) (1 cr.)
10:45 am -12:15 pm: Comparative Law (Lasser) (1 cr.)
1:15 pm – 2:45 pm: Comparative Property Law (Dinner) (1cr)
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm: Comparative EU and US Regulation: AI, Climate Change, and Antitrust (Stiglitz) (1cr)
Application Fee (non-refundable): $150
Course fees: $1750 per credit
Students must enroll in at least 2 credits.
Program fees only cover tuition.
Travel-related expenses such as housing, transportation to and from Paris, and meals are the responsibility of the student.
Cornell students should apply for loans through financialaid@cornell.edu
Unfortunately, Cornell cannot provide financial aid to non-Cornell students.
Students are required to provide their own health insurance. The Institute is not responsible for medical or dental expenses incurred by the students during the operation of the program. Be sure to include health insurance information on the application.
Cornell Law School complies with the “Cancellation, Change, or Termination of Programs” as set forth in the American Bar Association’s Criteria for Approval of Foreign Summer Programs.
60 Days: If a student provides at least 60 days notice from the program start date for withdrawing from the program; they will receive a full refund.
30 Days: If a student provides at least 30 days notice from the program start date for withdrawing from the program; they will receive a partial refund.
If a student does not provide at least 30 days notice from the program start date for withdrawing from the program; no refund will be provided.
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