Pacific-Asian Legal Studies (PALS)

In keeping with Hawai‘i's location, culture and history, the Law School has long emphasized Pacific-Asian Legal Studies (PALS). Our Pacific-Asian courses are increasingly important as American law practice has become ever more globalized and they continue to provide a comparative perspective on the U.S. legal system, which we believe is valuable for all of our students.

The Law School offers more courses on Asian law than almost any other law school, and we are the only American law school to teach Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islands law.

We offer our students:

• an unusually broad selection of courses on Pacific-Asian legal issues;
• permanent faculty members teach courses in Chinese and Japanese law and Native Hawaiian rights on a regular basis, and
• Asian visitors offer shorter specialty courses on law in Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines, and comparative administrative and constitutional law.

We also encourage students to broaden their exposure to Asia and the Pacific through externships, language training and law study abroad, as well as through participation in area studies centers on the University of Hawai‘i campus.