International student diasporas in global legal education

Legal education is shaped by its students, among other forces, but international students have largely been invisible in discussions in the United States. This is exacerbated by the absence of information about which international students enroll in U.S. law schools; law schools are not required to disclose the home countries of their international students, much less other information about them. But lack of disclosure does not prevent schools from touting the diversity of their international students, which serves as a form of capital for U.S. law schools by providing a foundation for schools' claims of international communities that span the globe and offer important learning and career opportunities. At the same time, international students often rely on home country classmates for social support during their U.S. law school experiences. Commonality, rather than difference, provides the basis for community for new international students. These dynamics-pulling in opposite directions-distinguish law schools from one another and offer a way to compare them and the potential communities they offer international students. We use these to connect to research using the framework of diaspora, from home country commonality that shapes internal diasporas to home country diversity leading to derived diasporas. This chapter uses new data obtained from a FOIA request about the home countries of international law students to examine both the claims and potential for internal and derived diasporas arising within U.S. law schools.