UGA Law School Consolidates Rusk Center & International Programs

Tuesday, March 14, 2000 WRITER: Kathy R. Pharr, (706) 542-5172, pharr@arches.uga.edu CONTACT: Gabriel M. Wilner, (706) 542-5238, wilner@arches.uga.edu UGA Law School Consolidates Rusk Center & International Programs ATHENS, Ga. - The University of Georgia School of Law, responding to a recommendation for greater coordination of its international offerings in the American Bar Association\u27s 1999 reaccreditation site inspection report of the school, announces the recent consolidation of its International and Graduate Legal Studies programs and the Dean Rusk Center for International and Comparative Law. The consolidated program\u27s new title will be the Dean Rusk Center - International, Comparative & Graduate Legal Studies. The executive director is Associate Dean and Charles H. Kirbo Professor Gabriel Wilner, former director of International and Graduate Legal Studies. He will continue to direct the law school\u27s graduate degree program and the various aspects of the international studies programs in addition to the research and service work of the consolidated Dean Rusk Center. Wilner will also continue to direct the Brussels Seminar, an intensive three-week course on European Union law taught in cooperation with the universities in Brussels, which Dean Rusk and he founded in 1973. Dean and Virginia Rusk Professor Thomas Schoenbaum, executive director of the Rusk Center for the past 18 years, has returned to full-time teaching at the University and will become executive director of UGA\u27s proposed Center for European Studies effective July 1, 2000. Other Dean Rusk Center - International, Comparative & Graduate Legal Studies staff and their new titles include: Dorinda Dallmeyer, formerly the Rusk Center\u27s research director, now associate director; María Eugenia Giménez, associate director for programs; Nelda Parker, office manager; Sherry Allen, senior administrative secretary; and Paige Otwell, graduate legal studies advisor. The consolidation of the Rusk Center and our international programs will be a positive development for the School of Law, said Dean David Shipley. The ABA praised our graduate program and international curriculum -- calling the graduate program \u27excellent\u27 and noting that we had a \u27first-rate\u27 research arm in the Rusk Center. The combination of these two programs will enhance their overall offerings and will bolster the law school\u27s national reputation for international studies. I wish to express my appreciation to Professor Schoenbaum for his outstanding leadership of the Rusk Center for the last 18 years and to Professor Wilner for his strong leadership of International and Graduate Legal Studies as well as for accepting the challenge of administering our consolidated program. Proposed Rusk Center initiatives include creation of more exchange opportunities for faculty and students, expansion of the law school\u27s budding international judicial training program, more conferences on international and comparative law issues, increased visits by foreign scholars, and greater involvement of the law faculty in scholarly research supported by the Rusk Center. # #