The law school has created several Centers, Institutes, and Programs to integrate faculty scholarship and activity, student interests and participation, and outreach to the larger university, legal and other communities. To build on our strengths and enhance our recognition in several areas of law, we need to expand support for the number and variety of such entities. To create and name a center, or to name one already in existence, requires a minimum gift of $5 million.

The Center for Law, Science and Technology supports faculty and student interest in intellectual property law, as well as in the intersection of law and science more generally. Among other activities, the Center puts on an annual conference on patent law, involving leaders from the judiciary, practice, industry, and the academic community, as well as roundtables in which members of each community are invited to discuss specific topics in a more informal atmosphere. The Center includes students in all its activities, creating unique opportunities for them to meet and converse with leading participants in this vital and growing sphere of legal activity.

The Center for Institutional Governance supports student and faculty work in the governance of non-profit, for-profit, and small governmental bodies, especially the governance difficulties shared in common by these institutions. In recent months the Center has brought to the law school the general counsels or leading officers of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and NASDAQ, as well as top practitioners in law firms to speak with classes, meet students, and discuss matters with faculty members.

The Institute on Education Law and Policy is New Jersey’s premier center for interdisciplinary research and innovative thinking on education policy. Issues affecting New Jersey’s urban students and educators are its primary focus, but those issues are addressed in the context of the state’s wide diversity and with an eye toward their national ramifications. The Institute supports collaborative interdisciplinary research, produces reports and other publications, holds meetings and conferences, and analyzes education law and policy for the benefit of policy makers and the public.

The Global Legal Studies Program focuses on the legal, social, and economic challenges posed by a global society. GLS is committed to fostering human security by addressing all aspects of that concept — from the law applicable to non-conventional violence, to workers’ rights based on international principles, to the consequences of transnational and domestic commercial pressures. The combination of academics and advocacy provides students with a solid understanding of international law and of the close relationship between its private and public aspects. The program collaborates with the student-run International Law Society and works closely with the Division of Global Affairs, a Rutgers–Newark degree-granting program.