The Academic Law University is a private law school founded in 1993 under the auspices of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Russian Academy of Sciences

The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....

. The ALU teaching staff is composed of Institute of State and Law fellows and legal academics within the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In 2010, the Academic Law University was renamed to the Academic Law Institute (Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

: Академический правовой институт (АПИ); translit: Akademichiskii Pravovoi Institut, API) to better reflect the specialized scope of study at the institution.

Notable alumni

• Sergey Aleksandrovich Volkov, Russian cosmonaut and son of Soviet cosmonaut.
• William E. Butler
  William Elliott Butler
  William Elliott Butler is a jurist and educator, the John Edward Fowler Distinguished Professor of Law, Dickinson School of Law, Pennsylvania State University and Professorial Research Associate, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London , and Emeritus Professor of Comparative...
  
  , LL.M. (1997), the foremost Western scholar on Russian law.
• Irina Dmitrieva, Partner, White & Case
  White & Case
  White & Case was founded in New York in 1901 and has grown into one of the world's leading global law firms. The firm has since expanded, and has practice groups in emerging markets including Latin America, Central & Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, as well as in Europe...