Mariano Marcos
State University

MMSU Law Dean earns Hague Academy, Harvard Kennedy School credentials

By Ian Paul Villanueva

MMSU College of Law Dean Atty. Brian Jay Corpuz recently earned two top-tier credentials after finishing the 2026 Summer Course in Public International Law at The Hague Academy of International Law (THAIL) in The Netherlands in July and hurdling the prestigious Public Leadership Credential (PLC) program of the Harvard Kennedy School in Massachusetts, United States, in June.

At The Hague Academy

Conducted at the Peace Palace complex in The Hague, which houses the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the PIL Summer Course featured general, specialized, and emerging courses in international law from judges of the ICJ, seasoned jurists, professors from top-caliber law schools, and the finest legal luminaries of the world.

The course lasted from July 2 to 24 and was attended by 10 Filipino legal scholars, including Atty. Corpuz, an associate justice of the Court of Appeals (CA), a trial court judge from Quezon City, a court attorney from the Supreme Court, a lawyer from the Philippine Judicial Academy, and other legal scholars in various fields.

Atty. Corpuz also had firsthand experience of embassy visits, during which he was assigned to meet with the ambassadors and diplomats of Panama, Norway, Spain, and the Philippines for collaborative discussions on legal education, geopolitics, ecotourism, and policy developments in world affairs.

He also personally observed actual trials in the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Kosovo Specialist Chambers where persons charged with crimes against humanity, genocide, aggression, and other war crimes are being heard.

Atty. Corpuz described the PIL course as a “very enriching and humbling experience,” adding, “Aside from my professional gains, this also opened opportunities for MMSU’s internationalization in legal education, having met law deans, jurists, doctors of law, and legal scholars with whom we can collaborate in academic and research endeavors.”

The first part of a three-year sponsorship, the 2026 PIL Summer Course will be followed by two more installments: a Private International Law Course in 2027 and Directed Studies in 2028.

Harvard’s Public Leadership Credentials

Just as notably, Atty. Corpuz also completed the Public Leadership Credentials (PLC) program of the Harvard Kennedy School, the graduate school of public policy and governance of Harvard University.

Along with 84 other government leaders from around the world, Atty. Corpuz participated in six six-week courses spread across a 10-month duration from September 2025 to June 2026. In five of the six courses, Corpuz obtained “Distinction” grades, the highest normative mark in the program.

With a focus on the areas of Policy Design and Delivery, Evidence for Decisions, and Moral Leadership Ethics, the PLC culminated in the capstone assessment, where Atty. Corpuz proposed the project, “Microcredentialing Legal Education in the Philippines as a Pathway for Cross-border Practice.”

The proposal highlighted the possibility of making the Juris Doctor curriculum embedded with stackable microcredentials comparable to the competencies of other countries and bridging the gaps of intercountry legal practice.

Concurrently serving as the university’s Administrative Services Director, Atty. Corpuz noted the significance of the PLC in giving him new perspectives in public leadership.

“The courses will confront you with the most difficult public policy problems of different countries, especially developing nations. The PLC experience equipped me with innovative public leadership and management perspectives,” he remarked, describing the individual and group submissions as very rigorous. “Well, it is Harvard, and I am privileged to learn from the world’s best.”

As a PLC alumnus, Atty. Corpuz has access to Harvard Kennedy School’s registry of global leaders who completed the program, opening possible international collaborations and exchanges. The PLC is also a pathway for the degree, Mid-Career Master in Public Administration (MC-MPA), whereby all the courses taken will be credited to the degree offering.