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If you had to give a report on what you
did this summer, would it include foreign travel and earning law school credit?
Students at The John Marshall Law
School did both by taking advantage of several foreign study programs offered
during the summer.
Professors Ralph Ruebner and Doris Long
took students to Lima, Peru, for three weeks of classes in human rights law and
intellectual property impacting indigenous peoples. Professor Michael Polelle
organized a study program to Parma, Italy, for a look at current legal issues
affecting the U.S. and Europe. Professor Michael Seng accompanied students on a
study program in Prague, Czech Republic, for an examination of comparative
legal systems. Professor Peter McGovern hosted the "International Business and
Trade in Antiquities, Art and Cultural Property" in Rome, Italy, and Professor
Kenneth Kandaras organized a trial program in Dublin, Ireland.
Claire Covington, a second-year
student, participated in two programs, Parma and Rome. Each had its own flavor,
but both offered her insights that she doesn't think she could have gotten from
a book.
"The international law course was the
best course. It covered constitutional law, women's rights, Italian criminal
law, and IP law. Each of the professors was very well prepared. And to go to
Rome to study art and antiquities was phenomenal. To think you could have a
lecture in the morning and walk to a museum in the afternoon and see the very
art that was discussed was great.
"The Vatican Museum was really like
sensory overload. There is so much there. My most favorite meeting was a
session with the Italian art police," Covington said.
The schedules gave Covington and fellow
students time to travel throughout Italy. And because the classes were in early
June, Covington was able to return to Chicago in time for a summer session
class at the law school.
Bryan Jones, a second-year student,
says the two-week program to Prague was intense with meetings for eight hours
each day, but it gave him the opportunity to examine how a country moving from
a Communist system has had to re-create itself and try and fit in to the
European Union.
One of Jones' favorite speakers was
Justice Vojtech Cepl, a former dean of Charles University and justice on the
Czech Constitutional Court.
"I'm planning to do IP law," Jones
explained. "Although I don't have an interest in practicing international law,
this trip introduced me to ideas and subjects that have broadened my
perspective. I now see that when it comes to international law issues, we all
need to work together on common ground."
Diana Kifarkis, who also traveled to
Prague, said the work was tough, "but going with Professor Seng was wonderful.
He has so many contacts with people in high places. I couldn't believe it when
we went to the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic, and we went to the office
of Jaroslav Fenyk, deputy prosecutor general of the Czech Republic. That was
like the equivalent of going to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez' office. And
then (Fenyk) gave us a lecture.
"The program offers you something that
you don't get from a book, and you see how people live in different societies
and how legal systems work," Kifarkis said.
Teuta Bitici was one of the dozen
people who traveled to Peru. The trip included two weeks in Lima with morning
lectures and afternoons in meetings with non-governmental organizations and
government organizations.
"The best part was the meetings. We
really got to interact with the people who were actually working on what we
were learning about. They were all very receptive," she said. The third week
was touring which gave students the opportunity to see how indigenous peoples
lived and how their way of life and their art needs to be protected.
Amy Martin Mennecke, a third-year
student, went to Ireland for the Comparative Trial Advocacy and Litigation
course. "I really liked the trial part. I think it prepared me for accelerated
trial ad in August, and it was good to compare the two systems," she said.
Mennecke said she played a witness for the group, and one day was a judge and
got to try on the traditional wig British judges wear.
Foreign travel has had its benefits for
Mark Palmer (J.D. '05) who studied in Beijing, China, as part of the first John
Marshall student contingent to travel to China in 2004. John Marshall has been
hosting attorneys from China's State Intellectual Property Office for more than
a decade. In 2004, the first John Marshall students studied in China. Palmer
had met many Chinese through that trip and as a volunteer with the China
program here at John Marshall. He was offered a summer position at East IP, a
Chinese-owned and operated intellectual property law firm. Palmer worked as a
researcher. He was excited to go back to China, a country that he's fascinated
with.
Law schools across the country offer
summer programs. Robyn Donaldson, a third-year student, traveled to South
Africa on a program sponsored by Howard University School of Law. The lectures
focused on human rights and the country's work at adopting basic rights for all
citizens as it moves away from the apartheid system.
She visited prisons, townships,
wildlife preserves and urban areas. Each gave her a different feel for the
country.
Foreign travel gives law students the
opportunity to earn credits, but only participation in John Marshall programs
offers students credit that counts on a student's GPA.
For information on what programs will
be offered in summer 2006, contract Professor Mark Wojcik, director of Global
Legal Studies, on extension 391. He said several programs from this past summer
will be repeated and new ones will be offered. 
Mark Palmer (J.D. '05) met this Tibetan girl in the
Yunnan Province in southwest China on one of his excursions. 
Gathered at Machu Picchu in Peru during the
three-week foreign study trip are (standing, from left) Jennifer Van Clev,
Professor Doris Long, Teuta Bitici, Stacey Lucas, Stacy Hronopoulos, Professor
Ralph Ruebner, Angelica Tsakiridis (kneeling from left) Andrea Kersten, Joseph
McCarty, Alen Takhsh, Stephen Klein. Not pictured, Steven Gore.
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