My colleague Michael Scharf, who teaches several international law courses and is currently Chair of the ABA's International Legal Education Committee, asked me to post his view on taking international law in the first year of law school, in response to Eric's thoughts below.

At Case Western we offer international law in the spring of the first year as one of five electives (and have done so for over a decade). Currently, more than half of our first year class enrolls in the course, which I teach. The course is not strictly public international law, but a hybrid of public and private international law (actually, most international practitioners and academics will tell you that the lines have blurred between the two over the years). I use the Carter, Trimble, Weiner casebook, which introduces students to the fundamentals of treaty interpretation, customary international law, the law of state succession, international organizations, numerous substantive areas (international trade law, international environmental law, law of the sea, international criminal law, international human rights law), as well as international law in the U.S. (including questions of constitutionality of Executive actions, the role of customary international law in U.S. courts, the foreign sovereign immunities Act, the act of state doctrine, choice of law, and recognition/enforcement of foreign judgments). The advantages of taking international law as a 1L include: (1) it gives students an edge in competing for international law-related jobs for their first summer (a number of our 1L students obtain placements at foreign law firms, war crimes tribunals, international institutions, and NGOs); (2) it gives students an early indication of the various areas of specialty within the field, so that they will know what international law specialty courses they would benefit from when they sign up for upper level courses in the spring semester (we have 47 international law courses, seminars, and Labs to choose from at Case); and (3) it exposes students to a field of law that is becoming pervasive in the practice of law in the United States (everything from family law to property law now often has an international law component).

I will just add that I think there is some common ground. Michael is not calling for making international law a required course, and Eric acknowledges that if a student is interested in the subject, that is a good enough reason to take it. I agree that most students at most schools will rarely get an opportunity to work on public international law issues as practicing attorneys, but I also think Case Western may be an exception in this regard (at least that's what Michael tells me). I would also stress that if a student is interested in working in an international law field, private international (and comparative) law is far more important, and its relevance for many practicing attorneys is likely to increase over time.