William & Mary Law School to Collaborate with Sweden’s Lund University Faculty of Law and Raoul Wallenberg Institute
William & Mary Law School, the Lund University Faculty of Law and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) in Sweden have officially entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to strengthen academic collaboration and promote mutual cooperation in various areas of legal education, research, and innovation.
The MOA was signed by William & Mary Law Dean A. Benjamin Spencer and William & Mary Provost Peggy Agouris in Williamsburg, Va., and countersigned by Dean Henrik Wenander from the Lund University Faculty of Law and Peter Lundberg, Executive Director of RWI.
“This Memorandum of Agreement with such respected institutions marks the beginning of a promising partnership,” Dean Spencer said. “Establishing valuable global dialogues will foster collaboration and innovation that will enrich our academic programs and provide faculty and students with even more opportunities to work across international boundaries.”
The point of connection for the three institutions is Professor Christie S. Warren, Professor of the Practice of International and Comparative Law and Director of the Center for Comparative Legal Studies and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding at William & Mary Law School. Since last fall, Warren has served as the 2024-2025 Fulbright–Lund Distinguished Chair in Public International Law, teaching at the Lund Faculty of Law and conducting research at RWI in Sweden. Her research focuses on the role of constitutions and foundational charters in stateless communities that lack political sovereignty.
“Collaborating with both institutions should bring us enormous prestige in the international legal community,” Warren said. “RWI is considered to be the preeminent human rights institution in the world, and the Lund Faculty of Law is ranked #36 of law schools in the world, according to Times Higher Education, the most respected source of global rankings.”
The Lund University Faculty of Law is one of Lund University’s four original faculties. The school’s law degree program is one of the country’s most popular degree programs, and the links to research provide students with a critical and evaluative approach to law from a broad perspective, which is required and in demand at all levels of society. In addition, Lund offers two international Masters’ programs and a number of freestanding courses.
Named after Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews and others at risk in Hungary at the end of World War II, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute is an independent academic institution established at Lund University in 1984. It combines multi-disciplinary human rights research with education, support, and outreach to contribute to a wider understanding of and respect for human rights and international humanitarian law.
William & Mary Law School is the oldest extant law school in the United States, having been founded in 1779 at the urging of William & Mary alumnus Thomas Jefferson, and it has a longstanding commitment to international law. Its Center for Comparative Legal Studies and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding prepares students to perform competently in an increasingly globalized world, and its Center for International Law & Policy fosters engagement with leading international lawyers and policymakers through distinguished lectures, roundtables, and symposia.
The signing of the MoU marks the beginning of an exciting collaboration between William & Mary, Lund University and RWI. All three institutions are committed to nurturing this partnership and exploring new avenues of cooperation to benefit their academic communities.
“I am hopeful these agreements will be the foundation for many productive collaborations among our faculty and students,” Warren said.