Themis, the international network for law students

Unity is strength, says a well-known adage. But for this to be true, each of the individual elements must be of proven value. That's the case with Themis (www.ir.unibocconi.eu/themis), the network founded in 2006 by Bocconi University, ESADE Barcelona, ​​Freie Universitaet Berlin and Université Est Créteil-Val de Marne Paris, which now counts 12 of the best schools of international law in the world. In addition to the four founders, the list is as follows: City University of Hong Kong, Maastricht University, Singapore Management University, Universitaet St. Gallen, Universidad Nova de Lisboa, National Taiwan University, Victoria University of Wellington, and Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Themis provides for selected students who participate in its program a certificate in International and Business Law. As Mariateresa Maggiolino, Director of the Law degree program at Bocconi, explains: "Themis is an exchange program with an added value: it combines the aspect of student exchange, that is, a semester of study abroad in one of the partner universities, with a meeting and discussion event that takes place once every year in a different university of the network, where students can freely express and discuss their legal views. The program also includes the completion of an international internship. And finally, there is the Themis certificate, a document valid internationally."
About 20 four-year and fifth-year Bocconi Law students are selected each year from about a hundred applications: "The selection", says Maggiolino, "takes place by evaluating the university curriculum of the candidates during a personal interview, in which we try above all to understand the student's motivation".

Themis is a program studied in detail which leaves nothing to chance. Faculty meets twice a year to define the courses suitable for the network's law students, "and this means that a specific relationship and a veritable cooperation also develops between us professors", Mariateresa Maggiolino continues, " I like to define this network as a sort of guided experience ". What are the reasons the strong interest for Themis coming from students? "Obviously, the fact that the experience allows you to obtain a certificate is a strong point. But every single one of the partner universities has specificities enabling law students to choose their destinations based on their interests and their curricula. It is a truly personalized experience".