The International Association of Law Schools (IALS) is an independent association of law schools that was established after a series of meetings of legal educators from around the world beginning in 2000. [1] Incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia in the United States in 2005, its secretariat is based at Cornell Law School. [2] Its membership includes over 170 schools from more than 45 countries. [3]
Its president is Francis S.L. Wang, Dean Emeritus of the Kenneth Wang School of Law at Soochow University. [4]
In 2013, the IALS convened the first-ever Global Law Deans’ Forum at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law. It was attended by 80 deans from 31 countries, [5] as well as judges including Ghanaian Chief Justice Georgina Wood and Diarmuid O'Scannlain from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. [6] The meeting adopted the Singapore Declaration on Global Standards and Outcomes of a Legal Education, [7] which was intended to offer a “common language” for global legal education. [8]