Graduate Tax Program

International Tax Program for Foreign-Educated Students

Letter from the Director of the International Tax Program

The globalization of trade and investment flows is having a profound effect on the practices and policies of international taxation. To meet the needs of lawyers in an interrelated world, law schools must move beyond traditional programs in international taxation which deal only with the tax regimes of their countries. Although individual country tax regimes remain important, tax advisors, tax professors, and government tax officials increasingly must operate in a context in which knowledge of unilateral rules is inadequate.

New York University School of Law has committed itself to legal education for a global economy, and the International Tax Program (ITP) is an important component of that commitment. Working side by side with colleagues from the United States and other countries, students in the ITP will study international taxation in from a global perspective. The ITP offers the largest and most varied selection of international tax courses available at any US law school, including basic and advanced courses in US international taxation, tax treaties, international tax policy, tax planning for cross-broader transactions, comparative international tax policy, and advanced corporate international tax problems. Students in the program are equipped intellectually for the practice of law in a rapidly changing economic order.

In addition to their coursework, ITP students are encouraged to participate in various enrichment programs, including the annual Tillinghast Lecture and the International Tax Program Lunch Lecture Series, a series of informal seminars offered by a variety of international tax experts. Speakers in the Lunch Lecture Series in recent years have included tax professors from US and foreign law schools, practitioners from US and foreign law firms and accounting practices, judges who deal with tax matters in foreign jurisdictions, transfer pricing economists, international tax counsel at mulnational companies, and officials and former officials from the US Treasury Department and the US Internal Revenue Service.

ITP students receive training in the most advanced tax research technologies, including tax research on the Internet. Our library staff is fully equipped to handle the research needs of ITP students and our library contains an extensive collection in international law and taxation, US taxation, and securities and finance law. Interested students have the opportunity to write a substantial paper under faculty supervision. In recent years, our students have had considerable success in publishing their papers.

ITP accepts approximately 16-28 students each year, many of whom come to their studies at NYU after gaining experience in government or private practice. The small size of the ITP allows the faculty to devote individualized attention to each student. At the same time, ITP students take some of their classes with students in the larger Graduate Tax Program, allowing these students to make contacts with a wide range of other students pursuing graduate degrees in taxation. In this way, ITP students form enduring personal and professional relationships with both US and non-US lawyers. Finally, the ITP benefits enormously from our location in New York City, which gives unparalleled access to leading practitioners in the international tax field.

H. David Rosenbloom
Director, International Tax Program