Following on Temple’s legal education programs in Japan and China, the law school is building and strengthening partnerships in India. Its first partnership agreement, with Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) was signed in 2013, and to date, 32 JGLS students have come to study at Temple. Temple also partners with Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU) Mumbai, with that agreement signed in 2022.
From February 15-21, 2024, Dean Rachel Rebouché and Assistant Dean John Smagula visited four law schools in India: JGLS and Amity University law school in greater Delhi, and MNLU Mumbai and NMIMS law schools in Mumbai. At each law school, Dean Rebouché gave a presentation to faculty and students sharing her recent research on US abortion law after Roe’s reversal. At JGLS, the dean also gave a presentation on feminist research methods to the feminist research and queer theory faculty research groups. At MNLU, the deans were joined by Supriya Kanetkar, Pennsylvania’s Authorized Trade & Investment Representative for India, who shared opportunities for employment in the state with the audience.
At each school, Dean Rebouché and her faculty counterparts agreed to promote cross-country academic collaboration, including joint research and co-authorship. She invited faculty to visit Temple as visiting research scholars, and she also agreed to share teaching opportunities in India with Temple faculty. Discussions also included student mobility, creating pathways for Indian law students to attend Temple’s Master of Laws for Foreign-Trained Lawyers program and the Temple Rome summer program.
“We are extremely grateful to our hosts for their welcome, hospitality, and interest to create opportunities for all of our faculty and students,” she said. “We look forward to our work together, creating opportunities for our law schools for years to come.”
In addition to these visits, Dean Smagula visited Manipal University Jaipur, Symbiosis Law School in Pune, and National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) in Hyderabad. Similarly, he discussed faculty exchange and joint research opportunities, and gave presentations to students about the Master of Laws and Temple Rome summer programs.
“Temple truly offers a global campus,” Dean Smagula said, “with students able to complete their degrees on three continents. Indian students also enrich our Temple family, adding to conversations inside and outside the classroom and forming friendships with our faculty and students that last a lifetime.”
The deans expressed their deepest gratitude to the hosts and as the collaborations grow, look forward to subsequent meetings, in India, Philadelphia, or Rome.