International Visiting Scholars

The Office of International Programs welcomes international scholars for research visits to the College of Law through our International Visiting Scholar Program.

This flexible program provides researchers the opportunity to work with our renowned faculty, observe course lectures, use our state-of-the-art facilities, access our vast print and digital library collections and reference librarians, and share their expertise with our College of Law community. Visitors are incorporated into the academic life of the College, assigned a faculty adviser, and may participate in and attend public lectures and faculty workshops. Visitors will be provided a work-space in the College for their personal use.

Candidates seeking an invitation to visit must submit a Visiting Scholar Application along with the following supplemental material:

• CV or resume;
• A proposal describing the research purpose of your visit; and
• a statement of the visitor’s English language proficiency (including TOEFL, IELTS or other test scores, as applicable).

Upon receipt of a Letter of Invitation from the College of Law, visitors will work with the Office of International Programs and Syracuse University’s Center for International Services to prepare documentation necessary for your J1 Scholar visa.

Contact Faculty Director of International Programs, Arlene Kanter, or Assistant Dean of International Programs, Andrew S. Horsfall, for the Visiting Scholar Application and with any questions you may have.

It is anticipated that visitors will be charged a fee of $2,000 USD per semester to the College of Law. This fee may be pro-rated for shorter visits.

Visitors will be responsible for any costs associated with their visit such as visa applications, housing, secretarial support, computers or printers, telephones, parking, transportation, research funds, medical benefits or insurance, visa fees or other expenses. The Visiting Scholar may hire a student research assistant, paid for by the Visiting Scholar or as a volunteer.

​Mr. Choi is a Visiting Scholar at Syracuse University College of Law (SUCOL), where he is engaged in research of international legal education and disability laws. He is also a research assistant at Burton Blatt Institute, an institution that supports the rights of persons with disabilities. He previously worked as a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Mid-New York in its Disability Advocacy Program. Hojin graduated from the University of Rochester, where he majored in Economics, in 2008 and stayed in his home country, South Korea, for 5 years. While in South Korea, he worked in the National Assembly of Republic of Korea dealing with Korean politics and policy matters. He also served in a local community center where he assisted low-income clients,elders, children with disabilities, and North Korean defectors. He came to the U.S. to learn the U.S. justice system and further explore its laws, legal community, and public legal services. He plans to return to his home country to implement what he has learned in the U.S. to the Korean society. Hojin now lives in the Syracuse metropolitan area with his wife, whom he met during their studies in Rochester, and their lovely daughter, who was born in 2019.

Dr. Smitha Nizar is a Fulbright Post-Doctoral Visiting Scholar from India. In her post-doctoral research, she examines the need to align India’s national laws with the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and to uphold the basic rights for persons with disabilities.  Her previous study, The Contradiction in Disability Law:  Selective Abortions and Rights (Oxford University Press, 2016), has highlighted the contradicting legal order on disability-selective abortion which is discriminatory and in violation of the international law, e.g. the UNCRPD. While India’s laws prohibit sex selection, this attempt at equality does not include disability-selective abortions. According to the study, prenatal tests and disability-selective abortion exposes the prejudiced medical and social stance and how the law favors it.  Dr. Nizar’s study also reveals how disability-selective abortion is inconsistent with the UNCRPD and its life-affirming paradigm. A pioneer in this area, this research will benefit India and the United States by urging the respective law makers to revisit the specific laws.

Prior to her research visit to Syracuse, Dr. Nizar was teaching and practicing law in India.  She volunteers her time as the Legal Officer of a disability rehabilitation organization, where children with disabilities are supported and educated from the very early stages of life. She dreams for a world where disability is accepted as a general human condition, to treat persons with disabilities as all others.  She works to achieve her mission, ‘Towards Equality for Disability’.

Judge Munhui Kang is a judge of Seoul's Southern District Court, located in South Korea.

She has worked as a judge for the past 14 years and deals mainly with civil cases. She has also worked for two years in the Seoul Administrative Court.

Judge Kang holds a Master of Laws from Korea University. She completed studies at the Judicial Research and Training Institute and Korea University Graduate School . Her main research interest is the civil jury system of America and she studies the rational and practical operation of civil jury system in America in order to examine the possibility of introducing it to South Korea.

Mr. Donghoo Sohn is a corporate and business lawyer at Reed CNY Business Law, P.C. where he handles FDA regulatory issues with major bio-pharmaceutical companies in

South Korea. Mr. Sohn also advises local businesses in Syracuse, New York, in regards to mergers and acquisitions, exit strategies, property purchase/lease, and related matters.

Mr. Sohn is a 2013 graduate of the Master of Laws program at Syracuse University College of Law.  He was the first graduate of the LL.M. program as well as the first LL.M. graduate to pass the New York Bar Exam.  

He returned to the College of Law as a Visiting Scholar from September 2017 to March 2019.  During his research visit, Mr. Sohn explored matters related to American and South Korean business culture, corporate law, compliance law, and related issues. He published a paper, “Duty of Disclosure; Comparison of Securities Regulations between U.S. and S. Korea by Cases in Bio-Pharmaceutical Industry” and delivered a lecture titled “Asian Corporate Culture,” at Syracuse University College of Law.

Donghoo Sohn is a board member of Syracuse University Law Alumni Association (“SULAA”). In South Korea, Mr. Sohn is a member of the Korean Blockchain Law Association and the Korean Disability Law Association.

Riccardo Fratini obtained his PhD, Master's, and Bachelor of Laws degrees at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. His fields

of specialization are employment and labor law. He works as a lawyer in the Court of Rome.  During his PhD studies, he spent a semester at Syracuse University College of Law engaged in the comparative study of the remedy of punitive damages and its place within the Italian system of remedies. 

​Flávia do Canto Pereira lives in the city of Porto Alegre in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. She is an attorney and professor at the Law School of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul and holds a Master of Laws degree. She is currently completing her Doctorate in Law. For five years she was Director of the Consumer Protection Agency in the State of Rio Grande do Sul and specializes in consumer law. While a Visiting Scholar at Syracuse University College of Law, she conducted research for her doctoral thesis on the process of consumer protection and regulation in the United States.

 

Luiz Dellore is a Professor at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo, Brazil. Dellore's main areas of research are Civil Procedure and Constitutional Law. On these topics, he has published books and several articles in Brazilian law journals and reviews. He has earned an LL.M. (2006) and a Ph.D. (2011) in Civil Procedure from Universidade de São Paulo and a second LL.M. in Constitutional Law from Pontificia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (2007). He was a clerk at the Superior Tribunal de Justiça. one of Brazil's highest courts (2011-2013). He held a position as Visiting Scholar at Cornell (2019). Dellore was a Visiting Scholar at Syracuse University (2018), where he focused his researches in res judicata, comparing its doctrine in Brazil and in the U.S. following the scholarship of Professor Antonio Gidi.

​Mr. Mao Lin is a PhD candidate of Sun Yat-sen university in China. He graduated from Sun Yat-sen University's School of Law in 2010. His PhD studies focus on history of legal thought. Mr. Lin pursued a research visit at Syracuse University College of Law from September 2017 to April 2019, with his beloved wife Jie Meng, a scholar and assistant lawyer also from Sun Yat-sen university, where he focused on American and Chinese legal culture.

Mrs. Jie Meng is a PhD candidate studying civil law at Sun Yat-sen University in China, where she is also the editor-in-chief of the School of Law's law journal. She has worked as an assistant lawyer since 2013 and has participated in various civil and criminal lawsuits and other legal affairs. Mrs. Meng came to Syracuse University College of Law to pursue a research visit from September 2017 to April 2019 with her husband, Mr. Mao Lin, who is also a PhD candidate from Sun Yat-sen University. During her research visit, Mrs. Meng engaged in research of internet privacy laws in China and performed a comparative analysis of such laws and information privacy systems in the United States and in other countries.