South Africa Program 2012

May 28 - June 15, 2012

Plan to arrive by May 26.

Visit the new Facebook page.

Video of April 20, 2012 Orientation

Video of October 26, 2011 information session

Mandatory orientation for accepted students on Friday, April 20, 2012 from 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. in Sullivan Hall 309. This session will be videotaped.  The link will be provided after the orientation.

The South Africa program is a three-week, three-credit summer study abroad program sponsored by Seattle University School of Law and The Mandela Institute of the Law School of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.  In its fifth year, the program draws students and faculty from across the globe:  In past years, students from the U.S. have had the opportunity to take classes with law students and recent law graduates from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Kenya, Liberia, Botswana, Canada, and Australia and have reported that interacting with and learning from their peers in other countries has been one of the highlights of the program for them.   

By the end of the first day, at the first meet-and-greet barbeque, I met a Cameroonian law student, a Liberian refugee turned Canadian law student, an Australian lawyer working in Hong Kong, and a former Rhodesian soldier who fought and lost the war for Zimbabwe. I was blown away by how much I learned before even starting my classes, and it only got better throughout the program.

Anne Devoe, 3L, Summer 2010

During the first week of the program, all U.S. students will take South African Law, Policy, and History: Apartheid, Democracy, and the Future (1-credit).  That course, which will include local experts as guest speakers and field trips to South African courts, museums and legal clinics, will introduce students to the legal system in South Africa from the apartheid to the present.  Students will then choose one of the following two-week, two-credit classes:  Law and Globalization; International Dispute Resolution; Climate Change, Economics and the Law; Human Rights and the Marketplace; Pension Law and Regulation in Comparative Context; Competition Law (Antitrust); and Cross-Cultural Communication.  Detailed course descriptions and faculty bios will be available soon.

Engaging professors introduced me to a wide range of international law issues, enabling me to see how these issues affect Africa, as well as the roles that other countries, the United States included, play in the global community.

Lael Carlson, JD 2011, Summer 2009

The program extends beyond the classroom, including local speakers and field trips to the South African Constitutional Court, local magistrates' court, and the Apartheid Museum.  In addition, an optional safari and braai (BBQ) at Pilanesburg Game Reserve is available for students.

We got to study with some of the most prestigious legal scholars in South Africa, including former Constitutional Court Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson. The program was intense but I learned so much not only from the professors at Wits but from guest speakers from around Africa and the international community. 

Diana Chaikin, JD 2009, Summer 2007

Visiting the Apartheid Museum outside Johannesburg is one of the most sobering, yet uplifting, experiences you're ever likely to have.  It is, in some sense, the afterimage, the memory, of a decades-long national nightmare, and you will walk away from it with a much clearer sense not only of the nation and legal issues you are studying, but of the importance of those studies.

Maximilan Kalton, JD 2010, Summer 2008

Read additional student testimonials here.

Seattle University law students may seek internships or externships in South Africa or other African countries after the program.  If interested, please send an email to Junsen Ohno at ohnoj@seattleu.edu. 

This program is accredited by the American Bar Association.

Contact Individuals & Application Materials

Students should complete the application form with accompanying materials listed on the form and submit them to:

Junsen A. Ohno
International Programs
Seattle University School of Law
901 12th Avenue, Sullivan Hall
Seattle, WA 98122

Applications may be submitted electronically to Junsen Ohno at ohnoj@seattleu.edu. Your e-mail should have “South Africa Summer Application” as its subject line. If you e-mail your application you will receive a confirmation e-mail. If you do not receive a confirmation e-mail within 24 hours of your submission, you should assume that your application was not received.

Acceptance to the program will be based on rolling admissions. 

Upon acceptance to the program, participants are required to submit  all summer-abroad forms to Junsen Ohno by Friday, April 13, 2012.