Rome Program

Courses offered

• Sex Trafficking: International Comparative Law (1 Credit) - Professor Blanche Cook
  • Around the globe, countries are (and have been) plagued with ever-increasing instances of sex trafficking. The internet has made access to vulnerable flesh all the more problematic. This class will examine the ways in which different countries attempt to regulate sex trafficking. More specifically, this class will compare and contrast the Nordic and Dutch models of sex trafficking legislation. The Nordic Model decriminalizes the sale of sex acts, criminalizes the purchase of sex acts, strives to provide social services to victims of trafficking, and attempts to reduce the overall demand for sex trafficking. The following countries have adopted legislation that advances the Nordic Model: Sweden, Norway, Iceland, the Republic of Korea, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Canada, France, and most recently, Israel. Other countries, such as the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, and some counties in Nevada have adopted the Dutch Model. Under the Dutch Model, both the purchase and sale of sex acts are legal so long as the acts take place between consenting adults. This class will engage a comparative analysis of each of the aforementioned nation's attempts to regulate sex trafficking, as well as relevant statistics, in an attempt to identify particular attributes of legislation that have made a noticeable impact on a country's attempts to prosecute, protect, and mitigate the demand for vulnerable human flesh.
• International Data Protection and Artificial Intelligence Law (1 credit) - Professor Charlotte Tschider
  • In this cutting-edge course we will explore data protection and informational privacy laws around the world, analyzing how and to what extent these laws safeguard data subject rights and interests. This course will also focus on laws that regulate technologies that can be used unfairly and discriminatorily, as in artificial intelligence, as well as policy strategies to promote fair and safe AI. Students will benefit from our location in Italy studying EU law in-depth.

2023 Schedule

2023 Presentation

Highlights of the program

• Visit to the Office of the Attorney General of Italy
• Visit to Italian Supreme Court
• Rome Bus Tour
• Papal Audience
• Dinner, aperitivo, and community gatherings with students and faculty

What are the costs of the 2023 program?

Courses Offered

• Climate Justice, Racial Justice, and International Law (required, 1 graded credit, PER ELEC) - Professor Carmen Gonzalez

  • The climate crisis is in the news on a regular basis, as wildfires, melting glaciers, mega-storms, floods, droughts, heat waves, and rising sea levels wreak havoc all over the world. While the climate crisis has often been depicted as a technical problem requiring technical solutions, this course will examine the emerging body of legal scholarship, reports by UN human rights experts, and case studies on the relationship among climate change, racial injustice, and international law. It will analyze the ways that international law contributes to these intersecting injustices and how international law can be used as a tool of transformation and resistance.

    Caused primarily by the greenhouse gas emissions of the world's most affluent inhabitants, climate change is an injustice because its impacts are experienced most acutely by those who contributed least to the problem and have the fewest resources to protect themselves from harm. These include Indigenous peoples, the small island states, racial and ethnic minorities, poor people, and those who reside in climate-vulnerable geographic regions, including tropical, coastal, and agriculture-dependent
    low-income countries.

    While most analyses of climate injustice focus on the impacts of climate change, this course will take a deeper dive into the origins of the fossil fuel-based global economy, and the harms it inflicts on states and peoples racialized as inferior throughout its life cycle historically and currently. For example, the Industrial Revolution, which launched the age of fossil fuels, was made possible by colonialism, slavery, and the international law doctrines that justified and facilitated these practices. In the post-colonial period, international law gave primacy to the rights of foreign investors engaged in natural resource exploitation, at the expense of the states and local communities in which these projects were located. These doctrines enabled European and settler colonial states to control the world's petroleum reserves in collusion with autocratic petro-states and transnational corporations. They also produced corporate impunity for human rights and environmental violations. Today, the extraction, processing, and combustion of fossil fuels has created "sacrifice zones" all over the world in territories belonging to peoples and nations that were colonially designated as inferior.

• Mass Incarceration and its Consequences: International and Comparative Perspectives (required, 1 graded credit, PER ELEC) - Professor Maria Hawilo
  • This course will explore mass incarceration and conditions of confinement globally, and compare and contrast racial and ethnic disparities in incarcerated populations, the global use of pretrial detention, its disproportionate impact and use on marginalized populations, and the sentencing and prison practices of countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States. The course will focus on the disproportionate impact of punishment and incarceration on those from Black and Brown communities and on migrant and refugee populations.

• International Human Rights in Rome: Field Study (optional, 1 non-graded credit)
  • This exciting optional 1-credit field study that will explore human rights sites and the issues throughout Rome. This course will be delivered with the materials covered asynchronously for a total of 8 hours prior to May 25th followed by applied learning during specific site visits to be conducted on tentatively Sunday May 26, the afternoons of May 28 and 29th. This 1-credit course will have a paper requirement.

Other highlights of the program

• Visit to the Office of the Attorney General of Italy
• Visit to the Italian Supreme Court
• Rome Bus Tour
• Papal Audience
• Dinner, aperitivo, and community gatherings with students and faculty

2023 Schedule

2024 Presentation

What are the costs of the 2024 program?

• Tuition is $1,765 for the two required 1 credit courses. Study abroad Rome tuition is half the price than it would be to take a two-credit course in Chicago. Courses are graded-credit (not P/NP)
• Housing is $840 for double occupancy room for 14 nights.
• Student Activities fee is $400. This is a non-refundable fee that is due with your application.
• International Health Insurance, required by the university. Last year the cost was $72, the cost is TBD for 2024.

Register for the Rome Summer 2024 Program

• Visit to the Office of the Attorney General of Italy
• Visit to Italian Supreme Court
• Rome Bus Tour (gives a great overview of this magical city, with visits St. Paul Outside the Walls, the Coliseum, the Forum, Palatine Hill, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, and more)
• Papal Audience
• Dinner, aperitivo, and community gatherings with students and faculty
• Monthly bus pass for Rome city buses and local rail system.

• Classes meet Monday-Thursday 8:45a.m. - 10:15 a.m. and 10:30 a.m - 12:00 p.m., except on the day of the Papal Audience or scheduled court tour. Class will then take place in the afternoon. Site visits will be scheduled for some afternoons; other afternoons are free to explore the city. 

• Friday-Sunday is free time to explore Rome, as well as other cities in Italy and Europe. Favorite destinations in Italy include Florence, Venice, and the Amalfi Coast. 

Yes! It is totally doable to do this program and have a summer job or externship. Be up front with your employer, let them know that you will be participating in this educational experience. Most employers will allow you to start the position right after the spring semester starts, take the two weeks you need for study abroad, and return to the position for the remainder of the summer. If you are participating in an externship, ask if you can participate in the required weekly externship class via Zoom or through one-on-one meetings with your externship class professor. 

• Gives you a 2-credit cushion going into 2L. Especially if you are a 1L going into 2L year, you will have a lot of things competing for your time 2L year, for example, classes, student activities, journals, etc. Your Academic Advisors will suggest that you take 12-14 credits during the fall so that you have time for the extra-curricular activities. Having the extra two credits from Rome will allow you to take the minimum required 12 credit hours during your fall 2L year without the pressure of having to take on more. 

• Form close relationships with faculty members, administrators, and colleagues. You will be in much smaller classes than during your 1L year, and as a result, get to know your faculty very well. There are also extra-curricular opportunities to interact with faculty at dinners and tours. 

• Study abroad in Rome is a transformative experience that you will carry with you for a lifetime. It also helps you stand out to employers – most students list study abroad on their resumes, and it is a great point of conversation in interviews.

Due to the intensive nature of these courses, all courses should adhere to the following attendance policy. Prompt attendance, preparation and active participation in course discussions are expected from any student. Any absence without a doctor’s note will impact the final grade. Students are also expected to participate in each extracurricular activity scheduled on the program calendar.

Live in and take classes at Loyola’s John Felice Rome Center. The campus spans more than five acres in the residential upper Balduina district of Monte Mario, Rome's highest hill. You'll have everything you need while living on a campus in the center of a lively neighborhood that isn't packed with tourists. The area is home to diplomats, senators, judges, and other distinguished families. It is very safe, quiet, and residential – you will see lots of locals walking their dogs and grocery shopping. There are lots of markets, shops, cafes, and restaurants in the area. The JFRC campus is very safe and secure, with a 24-hour security desk. The dorms are brand-new, and each 2-person room has a private bathroom and air conditioning in the evenings. There is an on-campus coffee/snack bar, work-out room, and laundry facilities, as well as air-conditioned computer labs, study rooms, and a library. Wifi is available throughout the entire campus. Your classrooms are state-of-the-art, with whiteboards and computer projectors.

Visit the State Department website.

Yes, financial aid is available. Your current year FAFSA (2022-2023) is amended for summer 2023 courses. If awarded financial aid, funds are available 10 days prior to the start of the program. You must be registered for at least 2 credit hours to be eligible for summer financial aid. 

Students must register for both Rome courses at the start of summer registration. Course withdrawal and tuition deadlines will be listed in Locus and further information can be found on the Law Registrar’s webpage. *If students withdraw from the program after Feb 1^st, they will not receive their $400 deposit.

Applications and a $400 non-refundable check are due  February 1^st . Students are accepted on a first come, first-serve basis. There are approximately 24 spots available each year.

The University reserves the right to rescind or amend this program for good cause, including but not limited to insufficient enrollment or loss of funding for the course(s), in the event of a pandemic or natural disaster. Should the program be cancelled by the University, students will receive their deposit and will not be charged tuition or housing costs.  Please note: the cost of out-of-pocket airfare will not be reimbursed by the University. Students are encouraged to purchase their airfare with insurance, the ability to change or cancel their ticket. 

In the event of a program cancellation, enrolled students will be notified as soon as possible.